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WOMAN’S MINISTRY, 


AND 


OTHER PAPERS. 


BY. 

REV. J. R. MILLER, 

PASTOR OF BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 



J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1875- 


/ 



Entered, according to Act ©f Congress, in the year 1874, by 
REV. J. R. MILLER, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 


PREFACE. 


'JpHESE papers have been written from time 
to time in the brief pauses of pastoral 
work. Some of them have appeared in the 
columns of various religious journals, — The 
Sunday-School Times^ The Presbyterian^ The 
Presbyterian Banner^ or The United Presby- 
terian. Others have never been printed. By- 
special request they are now collected, and 
published in book-form, in the hope that they 
may not be altogether without a ministry of 
good, in the homes which they may enter. 
The author would also state that he is not 
responsible for the insertion of the steel en- 
graving. 


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CONTENTS. 


Woman’s Ministry 




• 

PAGE 

7 

Water the Roots 

• 



• 

14 

Dead at the Top 

• 



• 

19 

The Best Business 

• 

• 


• 

23 

The Words of Christ . 


• 


• 

28 

The Author and Finisher . 


• 



33 

A Plant that needs Culture 

• 




40 

Post-Mortem Love 

• 




48 

To Young Disciples 

• 



• 

54 

Men who come from Jesus . 



• 

• 

59 

A Living Christ . 



• 

• 

64 

The Nether Springs . 



• 


71 

The Basis of Friendship 




• 

80 

Lay Work .... 



• 

• 

89 

My Responsibility 



• 

• 

95 

Explanation .... 



• 


100 

Chains of Gold 





107 

Gifts Differing . 





112 

A Letter and the Answer. 





118 


5 


6 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


How God prepares His Jewels . . . .125 

God’s Workmanship 130 

He knoweth His Own 134 

A Field without Springs 142 

To Discouraged Workers 148 

The Best Family Bible 150 

The Infant-Teacher’s Grave . . . .152 

The Alabaster Box 154 


WOMAN’S MINISTRY, 


AND 


OTHER PAPERS. 


WomniPiSf Pinijsftfa, 



HE personal ministry of woman forms one 


J- of the brightest and most beautiful chap- 
ters in the history of the human life of our dear 
Lord. Her hands wrought for him, all the way 
along his course, the most sacred and tender 
offices of love. She was faithful when all others 
had fled. We read of certain women who stood 
by his cross and were early at his sepulchre, 
that they had followed him all the way from 
Galilee, ministering unto him. And so women 
may yet follow Christ and minister to him. 
He still comes to our doors for bread. He 


7 


8 


WOMANS S MINISTRY. 


asks yet for a cup of cold water at the hands 
of love. Gentle fingers may yet weave gar- 
ments for him to wear. Affection may still 
perform for him its sacred ministries. He is 
ever putting himself before us that we may 
serve him. To the consecrated heart all life 
is personal ministry to Jesus. He has identi- 
fied himself in such a way with human life 
that everything we do, we do to him. 

Woman owes much to Christianity. All 
that is noble, beautiful, exalted, refined, tender, 
and pure in her lot, she owes to Christ and 
his gospel. Every Christian woman has been 
doubly saved, and owes it to her Lord to 
bring the whole wealth of her love into his 
service. The tree drops its fruits into the lap 
of him who nurtures it. The vine bestows 
its purple clusters upon him who trains and 
tends it. The fields give their ripened sheaves 
into the bosom of him who tills the soil and 
sows the seed. Even the little flower that the 
dew-drop blesses, gives back to the heavens 
again its sweet offering of praise. And shall 
not those who owe so much to Jesus, bring 
the richest gifts of their hearts and hands and 
pour them out upon his altar? 


WOMANS S MINISTRY, 


9 


Many spheres of ministry are open to Chris- 
tian women. One is the care, training, and 
teaching of little children, not only in the 
home as mother, but as teacher in the Sab- 
bath-school or weekday-school, or as mission- 
ary and friend. God gives no nobler work 
to mortal on the earth than that of fashioning 
the heart and life of a little child. 

There are artists whose all-absorbing am- 
bition is to paint a picture, which shall be 
hung up in some great gallery, to be admired 
by future ages. But Christian mothers and 
teachers of little children are permitted to 
work for a far more glorious immortality. 
Their work may have no praise among men. 
The world may never know when it looks 
upon the noble life, which has been fashioned 
in the lowly home or humble school-room, 
what hand gave it its beauty or its impulse. 
But eternity will declare it, and God will take 
care that the honor is bestowed where it 
belongs. 

But this is not the only sphere open to 
Christian women. They can enter the homes 
of the ungodly, everywhere, and by their 
superior tact, quicker sympathy, gentler love, 


lO 


WOMAN’S MINISTRY. 


and tenderer words, win their way, and win a 
way for their Lord, into hearts that have never 
before been opened to heavenly influences. 
The story of the Redeemer’s love is never so 
sweet, so tender, so melting, as when it comes 
out of the depths of a woman’s heart, through 
a woman’s lips, baptized with a woman’s tears. 
I have known hardened men, whom no ser- 
mon from the most eloquent preacher could 
ever have moved, softened to tenderness and 
penitential tears, as they listened to the burn- 
ing words of love and the earnest pleadings 
of a Christian woman. 

Then there is a great personal ministry of 
love-deeds which Christian women can do 
better than Christian men. God has given 
to them larger and more tender hearts than 
to men, a nobler wealth of affection, a sweeter 
tenderness, deeper sympathies, softer, gentler 
hands, and a greater power to bless, soothe, 
help, and comfort. And their very qualifica- 
tion for deeds of mercy is the seal of their 
ordination. It is their peculiar work to bear 
the blessings of charity to those who need. 
This work can best be performed — it seems 
to me that God meant it chiefly to be per- 


IVOMAJV^S MINISTRY. 


II 


formed — by the tender hearts and gentle 
hands of Christian women. 

Much of the power of the Romish church 
maybe traced to her gentle charities, wrought 
by womanly hands in the homes of poverty, 
and at the bedsides of the sick and dying. 
And w'hy should riot every Christian woman 
be a sister of mercy in the truest sense ? 

Many shrink from this work because they 
have not money to give. But money alone is 
the poorest alms ever bestowed. There are 
gifts which every true Christian woman, how- 
ever poor, has to bestow, which are infinitely 
better than money. Christ never gave any 
money. We never read of him giving a mite 
to any who were poor or in distress. And 
yet no man was ever such a lavish giver of 
beneficence as he. The apostles gave no 
money. They had no silver nor gold to be- 
stow. What Christ gave was love-service, 
pity, sympathy, compassion, tears, personal 
help. And these are the coins that the 
church should give chiefly. They are coins 
that bear the stamp of heaven. The image 
and superscription of Christ, our great King, 
are upon them. They were minted in heaven. 


12 


WOMAN'S MINISTRY. 


They are better than gold. Money is a poor 
thing to give without love, — 

“ For the gift without the giver is bare.” 

Money will not comfort the sad, nor cheer 
the lonely, nor lift up the fallen, nor strengthen 
the faint, nor succor the tempted, nor heal 
the broken-hearted, nor soothe weariness, nor 
wipe away tears. Love-gifts are what the 
poor, suffering, and sorrowing most need. 
And these heavenly coins the poorest may 
scatter. Let the Christian women of the 
church go out into the world, and repeat 
everywhere the tender, beautiful, helpful min- 
istry of Christ, and they will do more to 
bless the world, than if they opened a mine 
of wealth and made thousands rich. 

There was a little flower-plant, made to 
bloom in beauty, and shed sweet odors on the 
air. But it grew in the darkness. It became 
sickly and pale. Its leaves were soft and 
white. No flower burst out on its stem. It 
gave forth no sweetness. 

Then a gentle hand came and opened a 
window, and let the sunbeams in. And the 
little plant lifted up its head, and smiled, and 


WOMAN\S MINISTRY. 


13 


was glad. The beauty came back. The 
greenness came into the leaves again. The 
frail stem grew strong. The flowers burst 
out in sweetness, and the air was filled with 
fragrance. 

That is woman’s work, — to let the sunshine 
in upon darkened hearts, upon languishing 
spirits, upon fading hopes, upon drooping 
lives. 

There is no work so noble as this. There 
is not an angel in heaven whose heart does 
not thrill with joy when he is commissioned to 
come to this world to minister to some poor 
or needy one. Christ the Lord asked nothing 
nobler on earth than this, and he has made 
these lowly ministries forever glorious and 
divine. 



14 


WATER THE ROOTS. 


U\t 

I N these days of bustling Christian activities, 
is there not danger that we neglect the 
culture of our hearts? One Sabbath morning 
Wilberforce called upon Clarkson, and found 
him sitting among his papers, busily engaged 
upon his great emancipation schemes. He 
said to hirn, very earnestly, “ Oh, Clarkson! do 
you ever think about your soul ?” Clarkson 
replied, Wilberforce, I have time to think 
about nothing now but these poor negroes.” 

And is there not danger that many who 
are absorbed in schemes of benevolence, may 
forget to look after their own souls? Is there 
not the same danger in the life of every Chris- 
tian pastor and Christian worker ? Is not the 
tendency of these days, even in the church, 
toward the cultivation of a working religion, 
oftentimes to the neglect of deep heart piety? 

I have not one word to say against Chris- 
tian activity. No one can do too much. But 
efficient activity can spring only from deep 


WATER THE ROOTS. 


15 


heart religion. First, sit at Jesus’ feet, and 
then ministry will follow as naturally as the 
harvest follows the sowing. 

The Redeemer’s own life was an example 
for our imitation, and never was there such 
a worker as he. All his energies were given 
out in unceasing activities. But his life had 
a root. He spent hours, oftentimes whole 
nights, in prayer. He was always full of the 
Holy Ghost, and went ever from silent and 
deep communion to his toils. 

And the same is true of all the truly great 
workers who have ever toiled in the church. 
They took care of their own souls as the best 
and only true preparation for caring for the 
souls of others. Their grand developments 
of Christian energy were the regular out- 
growths of fervent piety. They took root 
downwards, and bore fruit upwards. And so 
it must ever be. Efficient, continued, and 
fruitful activity can result only from a life 
that is hid with Christ in God. 

What the church wants then, to-day, is not 
less Christian energy and activity, — it wants 
more. But that it may have more, it must 
first have more heart-life. A Christian life can 


6 


WATER THE ROOTS. 


only be luxuriant and fruitful when its roots 
grow in a deep soil, and receive plentiful 
showers of spiritual influence. 

And it is in the closet that the roots of 
Christian life grow. If there be no secret 
prayer, no silent communion, no personal 
living with God, there can be no genuine fruits 
of the Spirit. In many senses, the root is the 
most important part of the tree. Men do not 
see it. It is hidden under the ground. It 
gets no praise from men. Yet in the dark 
it works in silence, and in its secret labor- 
atory it generates the life which goes up 
into the tree, and which manifests itself in 
trunk and branches, in foliage and fruits. The 
leaves are woven down in that dark earth- 
factory. The colors that tint the flowers are 
prepared down in that lowly workshop. The 
little blocks that are piled in silence, one by 
one, as the beautiful fabric of the tree goes 
up, are hewn out in the secret quarries of the 
roots. The fruits which every year hang in 
rich clusters on the branches draw all their 
richness and lusciousness from the roots. 
And if a tree droops and languishes, he that 
would revive it must look to the roots. 


WATER THE ROOTS. 


17 

And these analogies hold true in the spirit- 
ual life. A man’s secret and personal reli- 
gious life is not that which the world sees, and 
praises, and understands ; nor is it that which 
directly blesses and benefits the world. It is 
not a man’s closet that is to be set upon a 
hill. But that there may be a beautiful, luxu- 
riant and fruitful life in the sight of the world, 
there must be a secret, hidden root-life to 
nourish this visible growth. That a man may 
be active and useful as a Christian worker, he 
must first be wrought upon by the Divine 
Spirit. 

Every active Christian life must have, there- 
fore, for its counterpart, a close personal walk 
with God. The energy of the one must be 
balanced by the intenseness of the other. The 
danger is not that we work too much, but 
that we pray too little. It is to be feared 
that we have too many deserted or rarely- 
frequented closets. We take too little time 
for quiet, solitary communion with God. 
When we are hurried with duties, we take 
still less time for secret devotion. Our ac- 
tivity trenches upon our communion. Our 
work takes us away from our waiting. 


i8 


WATER THE ROOTS. 


It is right to give, but we must first receive 
from God, or how can we give? We must 
not go out to starving souls with an empty- 
basket; we must wait at Jesus’ feet until he 
fills our hands with bread. 

We are so cumbered with much serving 
that we have no time to sit down to silent 
meditation. In our hurry for results we do 
not give God time to bring the fruits to per- 
fection in our lives. We pluck them while 
green and unripe, and think to feed men with 
them thus. If we would be busy Marthas, we 
must first be waiting Marys. We must receive 
at God’s hand before we distribute to the 
multitude. 

Let us, then, see to it that our own souls 
are fed before we seek to feed others. - Let us 
build our closets close to our pulpits and our 
fields of labor. Let us see that the roots are 
watered, and then we shall be fruitful trees 
indeed, our branches hanging full, and cov- 
ered with beauty. 



Z>£AZ> AT THE TOP. 


19 


M en are like trees. The comparison holds 
in many regards; among others, with 
respect to growth. No tree starts tall, full- 
branched, fruit-covered, but is first only a seed, 
then a shoot, then a sapling, and finally a tree, 
but ever growing into nobler and more beauti- 
ful proportions. Though it live three thousand 
years, every year has its own circle of growth. 
When it ceases to grow, it ceases to live. 

So men’s bodies grow, beginning with the 
helplessness of infancy, and developing into 
strong and vigorous manhood. 

So men’s minds grow. All the germs of 
the mental faculties, of thought, and will, and 
feeling, are folded up in the infant. It is the 
work of a true education to draw out and train 
these faculties, which are capable of almost 
limitless expansion and development, and 
which will doubtless continue to grow forever 
in the future world. 

Then there is still a higher life, — the life of 


20 


DEAD AT THE TOP. 


the soul. And no character is complete with- 
out its soul-growth. This is the part of our 
being on which the curse of the fall chiefly 
rests. The spiritual nature has been blasted 
by sin. Not until the new blood of redemp- 
tion flows into the soul, is there life there. But 
provision has been made in grace for the 
quickening of these dead branches. Every 
soul united by faith to Christ, lives. And 
wherever there is spiritual life there is also 
spiritual growth. 

But there are many men whose lower na- 
tures are marked by a luxuriant growth, whose 
higher, spiritual nature is starved and left to 
die. I have seen trees which cast a wide 
shade. Their lower branches reached far out 
and were covered with leaves, and gave to the 
tree the appearance of great prosperity. But 
when I have looked up toward the top, I have 
seen only a bare, dead, branchless, leafless 
trunk, rising above the greenness like the mast 
of a ship. 

And that is a picture of many lives. In all 
that concerns the body or the mind, — in all 
the lower branches of the life-tree, — there is 
great prosperity. They are prosperous in the 


DEAD AT THE TOP. 


21 


lower or worldly sphere. They put forth great 
boughs, and spread themselves out wide, and 
send their life-blood pulsing through great 
business establishments and enterprises, or 
through whole communities, or cities, or states, 
or nations. They have a marvelous growth 
and development, but it is all low down, close 
to the earth. They make a great show of 
prosperity before the world. Men come and 
rest in the shadow of their great spreading 
branches, and eat of the fruit of their toil and 
care. 

But when you turn your eyes up to the 
higher parts of their being, you see nothing 
but bare branches, with no leaves nor fruit. 
Like the tree, green and living below, but 
dead at the top, their souls stand out above 
all their earthly luxuriance, ghastly, bare, and 
dead. 

Now it is well to develop one’s physical 
nature, to draw out its powers to the utmost, 
and lay them on the altar for God. It is well 
to educate the mind, to train its power for the 
highest possible uses. Every one is respon- 
sible for the development and use of all the 
faculties God has lodged in his being. 


22 


DE/ID AT THE TOP. 


;put above both body and mind is man’s 
spiritual nature. It is the crown of manhood. 
It is the part of our being which is nearest to 
heaven, which makes us akin to God, and 
which contains the germs of our future eternal 
growth toward bliss or woe. It is on this part 
of the life-tree that faith, hope, love, meekness, 
humility, patience, and all the Christian graces 
grow. It is at the top the Master looks for 
fruit. 

And what matters it, thenj that a man has 
the most wondrous growth and development in 
the lower branches of his life, if he is dead 
atop ? What matters it that body and mind 
are clothed in luxuriance, if the soul is starved 
and bare ? 

Men should look to their spiritual nature. 
They should seek, first of all, soul-growth. 
No life is beautiful or complete in God’s sight, 
which is leafless, fruitless, and dead or dying 
at the top. But the life that is crowned with 
foliage and fruitage here, shall be crowned 
with unfading glory in heaven. 



THE BEST BUSINESS. 


23 


WJxt 

I T is the Father’s business.” It should be 
the great business of every one who has 
been saved. Every heart that has been thrilled 
by the Saviour’s love, should throb with love 
for the perishing. Every soul that has tasted 
of the bread of life, should hasten to offer it to 
others who are famishing. Every foot that has 
found the way of peace, should run after those 
whose steps take hold on hell. Every hand 
that has grasped the cross, should be reached 
out to rescue those who are swept away in 
sin’s dark tides. 

There are physicians who have no patients. 
There are lawyers who have no clients. There 
are business-men who have no business. There 
are working-men who have no work. But 
there should never be one Christian out of 
business. The Father’s work offers employ- 
ment for every one. There is no man too 
hard-worked to have his head, heart, and 
hand full of it. There is no one too ignorant, 


24 


THE BEST BUSINESS. 


or too lowly, to have a place in this field, 
next to some blessed angel. There is no 
child too young to work in the Father’s busi- 
ness, just alongside of Jesus himself. As in 
the great city, there are thousands of different 
kinds of work — work for the skilled artist, 
for the educated man, for the tradesman, 
for the child — so there is work for every 
grade and kind of workman in the church 
of God. 

There is something for you, dear reader, 
whoever you may be. There is some weary 
heart waiting, somewhere, for the word that 
hangs trembling on your tongue. There is a 
thirsty one, somewhere, longing for the cup of 
water which you can give. There is some 
sick one wasting away in a dark room, some- 
where, wondering why you never come. There 
is some poor, discouraged one, somewhere, 
who needs your cheering words and your 
helpful love. You have a strong arm, and 
there are prisoners waiting for you to come to 
break their chains. There are hearts that seem 
hard as stone, which will melt when your hot 
love-tears fall upon them. There is work 
given to you, which will never be done until 


THE BEST BUSINESS. 


25 


you do it. There are souls which must per- 
ish, unless you go to them with the message 
of love. 

Then the Father’s business is earnest busi- 
ness. It is no pastime. It has to do with 
immortal souls, which must be saved, if ever, 
before they pass down into the shadows of 
death. Soon they will be gone, and then the 
word cannot be spoken ; the cross cannot be 
held up before their eyes; the bread cannot 
be offered. 

My sister traveled night and day, many 
hundred miles, to see another sister who was 
dying. And when she reached the house, they 
met her at the door, and said, You are a few 
minutes too late. Ella has just died !” There 
are souls that are waiting for the coming of 
your feet — dying souls. If you hasten not, 
they must die in their sins. 

It is a bitter thing when one has known an 
impenitent neighbor for years, and has not 
spoken once to him about his soul, to pass his 
house and see crape on his door; or to take 
up the morning paper and see that he is dead. 
It was a bitter cry that wailed forth from that 
father’s heart, when he rushed into his pastor’s 
3 


26 


THE BEST BUSINESS. 


study and said, Oh, sir, my daughter is dead, 
and she has never heard a word of prayer, nor 
a breath about her soul, from my lips !” 

Close the eyes. Fold the arms upon the 
bosom. Smooth the tangles out of the hair. 
Put flowers on the coffin. Read the burial 
service over the body. Plant cypress on the 
grave. But all cannot soothe the anguish 
in the heart of him, who, after years of unim- 
proved opportunities, came too late to do the 
Father’s business, to offer eternal life to the 
lost soul. 

Let every one do his work promptly. 
Answer every call of God’s Spirit at once. 
To-morrow there may be crape on your 
friend’s door, — or on yours, — and the deferred 
business may never be done. 

There will be a reckoning in this business 
of the Father. The Lord is coming again 
to sum it all up, and to call every servant 
to account. It is a fearful responsibility to 
be great, to have great power, to have much 
money, to have large influence. Every shred 
of a gift from God must be accounted for. 

Dear reader, when the Master comes to 
reckon, with his servants, what will you have 


THE BEST BUSINESS. 


27 


to bring to his feet ? He has given you money. 
He has given you a tongue to speak of his 
love. He has given you a soft and gentle 
hand to bind up the wounds of others, to lift 
up fallen ones, to bear up weak ones, to put 
the cup to burning lips, to smooth the wrinkles 
out of the brow of care. He has given you 
tender sympathy to feel for others’ woes, to 
bear sweetness and comfort to homes of sorrow. 
He has put the gospel into your hands with 
pardons for guilty and condemned souls, with 
heavenly bread for the starving, with pillows 
for the sick, with staves for the lame and aged. 
What are you doing with your gifts for Christ ? 
How will it be with you when the Master 
comes to reckon with his servants ? 



28 


THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 


WJxt 0f 

HAT wonderful things are the words of 



VV Christ! When a traveler comes home 
from some strange land, on which foot of tra- 
veler never trod before, how eagerly do men 
gather about him to listen to his story ! If 
one of our beloved dead, who has been a few 
months or years with God, were to come back 
to our home again, with what rapt interest 
would we listen to every word he should speak 
about that heavenly land I If an angel were to 
come down from heaven into our streets, and 
speak in seraphic words of the wonderful 
things of God, what eager listeners would 
we be I How his words would enchain our 
thoughts, and linger in our minds and hearts ! 

But the words of Christ are stranger still. 
As we turn the gospel pages, and linger over 
the glorious truths that gleam and sparkle 
upon them, like diamonds in their settings of 
gold, or like stars in the midnight sky, we 
read, not the words of a returned traveler ; not 


THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 


29 


the words of one come back from the dead ; 
not the words of an angel who had worshiped 
a thousand ages before God’s throne ; but the 
words of One who had dwelt from eternity in 
the Father’s bosom, — the living, spoken words 
of God himself. 

There is a divine power in the words of 
Christ. Once one of them fell upon a stormy 
sea, and stilled it in a moment. One of them 
flew into the darkness of a sepulchre, where 
a dead man lay, touched his heart and started 
it to beating, and sent the frozen currents 
tingling, hot with new life, into every member 
of the dead body. One of them struck a bar- 
ren tree and caused it to wither to the roots. 
Another gently touched a leprous body and 
healed it in a moment. The words of Christ 
were not mere empty sounds ; they were full 
of divine life and energy. 

And they have not lost their power through 
the ages. If you lean upon a word of Christ, 
you shall find Christ’s mighty arm under it. 
If you are sinking in the waves of trial, and 
reach out your hand of faith and grasp one of 
these blessed words, you shall find the hand 
of Christ gloved in it, and shall be held up. 


30 


THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 


If you are pursued by the fierce enemies of 
your soul, and flee for refuge behind a word 
of promise, you shall find yourself in the 
secret place of the Most High, under the 
shadow of the Almighty. If you are weary, 
or in trouble and sorrow, and pillow your head 
upon one of these precious words, you shall 
find that you are lying upon the bosom of 
your heavenly Father, and shall feel the warm 
beatings of his heart. If you are alone in 
darkness or trial, and grasp some sweet word 
of love, you shall find that you are leaning 
upon the arm of the Beloved. You may take 
these words into your heart, and you shall 
have Christ there too. 

We are told to let “the Word of Christ 
dwell in us.” The human soul is a house. 
It has many rooms. Some are in the base- 
ment where the lower passions and appetites 
lurk. Some are high up with an outlook on 
heaven, where faith, hope, the affections and 
devotion dwell. 

When a man buys a house, he wants the 
keys of every apartment. Christ has bought 
the soul-house, and his Word claims possession 
of every chamber, every room, every closet. 


THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 


31 


In old castles, and other stately mansions in 
the old world, there would be a little chapel 
where God was worshiped on Sabbaths, — a 
little room set apart for God, — while the whole 
of the great building besides, was devoted to 
the uses of the owner of the mansion. And 
often there would scarcely be a door opened 
to God, even formally, in that whole great 
mansion, except the little chapel door. And 
there are many men who want to have merely 
a little chapel for Christ in one corner of their 
heart, while they lock every other door against 
him. They are willing to let “the Word of 
Christ” regulate their praying, and praising, 
and church-going, and whatever belongs to 
the specifically religious part of their life. 
But when they see it coming toward the door 
of their counting-room, or safe, or workshop, 
or when it comes in to control their business 
or their pleasures, or to regulate their general 
life, they shut the door in its face, and turn the 
key quickly, protesting against such “ unwar- 
rantable interference.” They do not believe in 
mixing up religion and business. 

But the blessed word of Christ will not stay 
in any mere chapel in a man’s heart. It will 


32 


THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 


dwell only as master. If it has not full pos- 
session of your soul, holding every key; if it 
cannot go into every chamber, and be master 
everywhere ; if it cannot control your business, 
your pleasures, your tempers, your lips, your 
appetites, your whole life, — it will shake the 
dust off its feet, and, weeping over your de- 
serted heart, will write “ Ichabod !” upon the 
closed doors. 

The Word of Christ will be no mere lodger. 
It must possess the soul, driving out every 
profane occupant, cleansing and beautifying 
every unhallowed chamber, living and ruling 
in every faculty, feeling, and affection. No 
man can live two lives, have two dwellers in 
his heart, serve two masters. The word of 
Christ is the voice of the living Christ, who 
sits nowhere if not on the throne. Let this 
blessed Word dwell in you^ ruling, guiding, 
transforming. As one opens his windows and 
doors, on a sweet summer’s morning, to let the 
fragrant air and pure sunshine flow into every 
corner of his dwelling, so open your hearts to 
the blessed, sweetening, enriching, and purify- 
ing Word of Christ. It will beautify your 
whole life. It will bring heavenly fragrance 


THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER. 


33 


into your soul. It will cheer and gladden 
you. It will strengthen and help you. It 
will lighten your darkness. It will comfort 
your sorrow. It will change you into the 
image of God. 


E very believer is to be transformed into 
the image of Christ. Hence we are en- 
joined to grow up into^him in all things. 
Whatever temper, affection, disposition, or pro- 
pensity there is in us unlike Christ, is to be 
brought into harmony. The soul of man is 
like a musical instrument whose chords are 
jangled and out of tune. The work of sancti- 
fication is to bring the whole life into harmony 
with itself, and with the perfect soul of Christ. 
There are, however, mistaken views of the 
manner in which this is accomplished. 

Thus we are said to be sanctified through 
the means of grace. And a man has a hasty 
temper, or a grasping, worldly spirit, or a 
selfish heart, or finds himself in some way far 


34 


THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER. 


below the model which Christ has given for 
imitation. He wants to become better, and 
reads so many chapters a day in his Bible, 
prays night and morning, and attends the 
church services regularly for a few weeks, and 
expects to find his evil traits and qualities dis- 
appearing in some mysterious way. 

Now these means of grace are meant of 
God for blessing to our souls. The Saviour’s 
prayer to the Father for his disciples was, 
“ Sanctify them through thy truth.” The 
Word of God is adapted to the sanctification 
of our natures. It holds ever before us the 
pure and holy character of God. It is a mir- 
ror, in which we may see ourselves as we are, 
with all our spots and blemishes. It holds 
forth ever before us, also, the pure and spot- 
less image of Christ, into which we are to be 
fashioned. It is fitted thus to be a means of 
sanctification. And so of all the ordinances 
of the house of prayer. And yet they have 
no power of sanctification alone. A man 
may enjoy them all his life, may literally live 
in them, and become no whit better. It is 
only when the Spirit works in and through 
them that they have sanctifying power. 


THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER. 


35 


Then it is taught that afflictions and trials 
tend to sanctification. One of God’s best 
schools on earth is the school of trial ; and he 
employs no better teachers than the stern, 
severe, and seemingly harsh masters, disap- 
pointment, sorrow, loss, pain. We know that 
Christ’s humanity grew up in this school. 
We know God has ordained that through 
much tribulation we must enter the kingdom. 
We know that as fire purifies gold, so affliction 
refines and purifies God’s dear golden ones. 
We know that as the photographic artist, when 
he would bring out the features of his picture, 
carries the plate into a dark room, where no 
ray of sunlight falls, so God often makes the 
room very dark about the souls of his children, 
that he may better develop his own image in 
them. Many a Christian comes out of a sore 
sickness or a great sorrow better than he en- 
tered. 

And because that God employs these trials 
and afflictions so much as his servants, and 
blesses them so often, many persons have the 
impression that they possess some inherent 
power of sanctification, — that they always 
make men better. But such is not the case. 


THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER. 


The natural tendency of trial is to destroy. 
And there is many a bereavement or loss that 
falls upon the soul like a frost upon a garden, 
destroying its fairest flowers. It is generally 
supposed that even the ungodly are made 
better by sorrows ; but, on the other hand, 
sorrow only hardens the heart of an ungodly 
man. The same sun blesses the branch on 
the tree and withers the severed branch. So 
the same affliction blesses the man who is 
abiding in Christ, and destroys the man who 
has no vital relation to Christ. It is only the 
follower of Christ to whom afflictions become 
ministers of good, and to him only when the 
Spirit of God comes in them and blesses them 
to his heart. 

Then it is not the affliction itself that blesses; 
it is the Spirit that works through the afflic- 
tion. The dark storm-cloud passes over the 
earth, and the springs are fresher, the fields 
are greener, the flowers are more fragrant. It 
is not the angry cloud that blesses the springs, 
and fields, and flowers, — it is the gifts of rain 
which the clouds bring in their dark folds from 
God. So it is not the cloud or storm of trial 
that blesses the soul, but the influences of his 


THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER. 


37 

Spirit which he sends by these dark-mantled 
messengers. 

Others understand that it is by their own 
efforts and struggles that they grow up into 
the full Christian stature. They are always 
quoting this text, “ Work out your own sal- 
vation but they forget to finish the verse, 
“for it is God that worketh in you both to 
will and to do.” There are many who have 
been resolving and struggling for years to 
overcome some temper, or appetite, or affec- 
tion, and who are no nearer victory than when 
they began. Such efforts are useless and 
futile. And the lesson which I would seek to 
impress on my readers is this, that only the 
Spirit of God can transform us into the image 
of God. We must be content to let the Spirit 
take away our spots, overcome the evil in us, 
and produce in us the features and principles 
of the new life. 

What is Christian life ? Is it not essentially 
the dwelling of the Divine Spirit in the heart? 
“ Christ liveth in me.” What, then, is sancti- 
fication ? It is not the mere patching, paint- 
ing, and adorning of the old nature, but the 
growth of the new divine life in the soul. 


38 


THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER. 


When a seed falls into the ground it dies. 
There is a germ of life in it which grows up 
into a plant or tree ; but- the seed itself dies 
and remains in the earth. So the old nature 
is not to go into heaven, or to be trained for 
glory. It dies, and the Christ born in us at 
regeneration is what grows up into divine 
beauty. 

Sanctification, then, is simply the Spirit of 
God in us taking more and more full posses- 
sion of our hearts, ruling more and more in 
us, and displacing more and more the old 
occupant. It is the Christ-child in our heart 
waxing mightier and stronger every day, and 
growing up into noble manhood. And that 
is not our work. The Spirit in us needs no 
human help to grow. If you would then be 
sanctified ; if you seek purity, nobleness, 
strength, and beauty of soul, learn that all 
you have to do is to give yourself up to God, 
to throw wide open every chamber of your 
heart to him, to let him have free access and 
full sway in your life, and to look to him 
alone for sanctification. 

Christ is the master of your soul-house. 
He is adorning and beautifying it for himself, 


THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER. 


39 


for his own temple. He knows just how he 
wants it, and he needs no help from you. In- 
deed, your unskilled hands would only mar 
his work. The artist wants no clumsy fingers 
to help him paint his picture, or even add one 
touch to it. Nor does this Divine artist want 
a single human touch on any of his pictures. 
When you find a spot take it to Christ, and 
ask him to wash it out, ior you cannot. When 
you find some troublesome temper, or habit, 
or disposition, do not waste time by trying to 
overcome it yourself ; take it at once to Christ. 
Remember ever that Christ is living in you^ 
that he is the author and finisher of his own 
work in your soul, and that the best and only 
way you can help him is to leave it all to 
him, and to yield up your whole self into 
his hands to be moulded and fashioned at 
his will. 

David’s prayer for purity is the model. It 
was not that God would help hint to over- 
come his sinfulness, but “ Purge thou me with 
hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash thou me, 
and I shall be whiter than snow. Create thou 
in me a clean heart.” Here lies the secret of 
peace. This lesson is the key to the true 


40 


A PLANT THAT NEEDS CULTURE. 


higher life. Our sanctification is not our 
work but God’s. Let the hand divine print 
the likeness divine upon your heart; wash 
out all the spots ; smooth down all the asperi- 
ties ; overcome all the evil ; bring out all the 
hidden beauties and heavenly features, and 
take your poor, blurred, blotted, marred, and 
ruined life, and fashion it into the full image 
of the Redeemer. “ It is not by might, nor 
by power, but by my Spirit,” saith the Lord. 


% giant ttiat 



E do not know how much our friends do 


VV for us, how they help us, how they 
bless us, how much they add to our joy, how 
much of our prosperity we owe to them, what 
they do toward the formation and up-building 
of our character. Even the friend of an hour, 
whom we meet on railroad or steamboat, or 
at the house of a friend, or amid the busy 
scenes of life, — as when two ships meet on the 
broad sea, speak each other and pass on, never 
to meet again, — we know not what blessings 


A PLANT THAT NEEDS CULTURE. 41 

he brings to us from God, nor how that tran- 
sient and casual meeting affects our whole 
after-life. We know not what touches, deli- 
cate and beautiful, upon the canvas of our 
soul there will be forever, which the fingers 
of that chance friend left there. Every soul 
that touches ours leaves its impression upon 
us. I know that I get good from every pure, 
gentle, genial companion even of a few mo- 
ments. How much more, then, from the 
friend who walks by my side, and whose 
friendship sings sweet songs in my ear and 
heart for years and years ! There will be a 
silver thread in every life-web when it is fin- 
ished, woven into the tissue by the friendship 
of many days. And there will be a touch of 
beauty on the canvas, put there by every good 
and holy hand that has ever been laid upon 
us in momentary greeting or benediction. 

It was a beautiful fancy of the poet when 
he said that the song he had breathed into 
the air he found again from beginning to end, 
long, long afterward, in the heart of a friend. 
So friendship is ever breathing its sweet songs 
into the air; and so, too, it shall find them all 
again, from beginning to end, in the hearts 
4 


42 


A PLANT THAT NEEDS CULTURE. 


Upon which they fall. Nothing that love does 
is ever lost. The time we spend with pure 
and good friends in sacred communings, or 
in the cultivation and deepening of noble 
friendships, is not lost. It brings us not only 
passing enjoyment, but permanent blessing. 

There is special need of this lesson in these 
times. The tendency of everything is toward 
material results. Time which does not yield 
dollars and cents is set down as lost. Men 
know of no way of becoming rich but by 
accumulating gold and silver. The basis of 
social life is sadly mercenary. People even 
marry for money, — or at least demand the 
money qualification as a sine qua non. 

Men are too busy to have or maintain 
friendships. Many are so absorbed in busi- 
ness that they have not time even for the cul- 
tivation and enjoyment of their own home 
loves. I have read of a boy who wanted his 
mother to ask some favor for him of his father. 
And when the mother suggested that he 
might ask for himself, the boy replied, “ I 
would, but I don’t feel well enough acquainted 
with father.” I suspect there are a great 
many children who are not well acquainted 


A PLANT THAT NEEDS CULTURE. 43 

with father. Possibly there are even some 
wives whose acquaintance with their husbands 
is very limited. Many men only see their 
families at an early and hurried breakfast and 
a late supper. They spend no quiet hours 
with them in cultivating and deepening the 
home affections. They never romp with the 
children. They do not join in the home 
cheer. Their voices are never heard in the 
home songs. They do not share in the home 
confidences. They may be brilliant men in 
society. They may flash and sparkle in a 
neighbor’s drawing-room. They may be all 
life and vivacity in business circles. But at 
home every door of their hearts is locked. 
They are like frowning, bristling forts, stern, 
silent, and awful, in their own houses, in the 
presence of those who are nearest and dearest 
to them. 

Now no man has a right to be a bear any- 
where, much less at home. Home should be 
a place of tender love, sacred confidences, and 
the interplay of holy affections. A man should 
bring the best of everything there, his sweet- 
est courtesies, his gentlest kindnesses, his best 
thoughts, his holiest confidences. There he 


44 A PLANT THAT NEEDS CULTURE, 

should ever appear at his best. If he must 
have dreary, sullen moods, let him have them 
in his store or counting-room, where they will 
not cast deep shadows over the hearts that 
look up to him for sunshine. In the circle of 
his own loved ones a man should open every 
gate of his heart, not only that his most sacred 
feelings and affections may flow out, but that 
his dear ones may enter into the holiest cham- 
bers of his soul. He owes it to the wife, who 
has lavished the boundless wealth of her love 
upon him, and whom he swore at the altar to 
cherish tenderly forever. It is not enough 
that he loves her — his love should find ex- 
pression. It should beam in his countenance, 
sparkle in his eye, flow out in his words, live 
in his touch. It is well enough to tell us on 
a dark, cloudy day that the sun is shining 
away, bright as ever, above the clouds, but we 
all know how dreary such a day is, and how 
much better is the day of cloudless beauty. 
A great many men with a wealth of tender 
affection are like very cloudy days. The sun- 
shine never breaks through. 

Every man owes it to his children to give 
time to the cultivation of home love, and to 


A PLANT THAT NEEDS CULTURE. 45 

bring his heart’s richest treasures there. It is 
sad to see a child weeping over a father’s coffin. 
But it is scarcely less sad to see a child who 
knows nothing of a living father’s love, grow- 
ing up in ignorance of the wealth of affection 
that lies so close to its young heart. Many 
fathers complain of their children’s want of 
love and honor for them, and confidence in 
them. May not the reason be found here? 
Their own hearts were shut against them 
in their childhood days. They never drew 
out the love of their young hearts or sought 
to win their confidence; and now they pay 
the penalty, and call it ingratitude in their 
children. Men should seek to have their 
children anchored to them by all the cords of 
love in their hearts. They should cultivate 
the home affections most assiduously and 
tenderly. They should never be too busy to 
give many hours of every week to the loved 
ones who cluster closest around their hearts. 

Time thus spent is not wasted. No hours 
yield such rich returns. No capital is so val- 
uable as that a man has in the hearts of others. 
He is a very poor man who has millions of 
gold, and no friends. He is very rich who 


46 A PLANT THAT NEEDS CULTURE. 

has no money, but who comes home in the 
evening and sits down in the midst of a circle 
of loving ones, knowing that his name is car- 
ried in the core of all their hearts. No panic 
can ever touch such wealth. His banks will 
never suspend. Disasters cannot rob him, 
but like the mountain freshets only lay bare 
new veins of gold. Then a man can carry 
these treasures with him into the other world. 
For love lives on through death. 

Every wise man will seek to have friends. 
He will take time to cultivate friendships, and 
to make them deep and permanent. A selfish 
man or a man of irritable temper, and harsh, 
ungoverned speech cannot keep friends, for 
there are no flowers so sensitive to the frosts 
as human affections are to selfishness, bitter- 
ness, or anger. 

It costs much to have friends and to culti- 
vate and maintain deep friendships. One must 
give in order to receive, and give as much as 
he receives. Heart must go out to meet 
heart. Life must clasp life. Soul must be 
knit to soul. 

But the blessings of friendship repay a 
thousand times its cost. They spring up, per- 


A PLANT THAT NEEDS CULTURE. 


47 


petual fountains of comfort and gladness in 
the heart. They make a man rich when he 
has lost all else. They build up a refuge for 
him, when the days of darkness and adversity 
come, and in the feebleness and helplessness 
of old age. They hold him up when he is in 
danger of falling. They keep him always 
young in heart and in hope. They beautify 
his soul. They begin heaven here below for 
him. 

How important, then, that we have friends ! 
How important that we have good and pure 
friends ! An impure hand stains the soul on 
which it is laid. Many a character carries a 
blot through life which an hour’s companion- 
ship left upon it. Many a life-web is marred 
and spoiled by the threads which unworthy 
and defiling friendships weave into it through 
the years. But the friendship of the pure 
and noble purifies, ennobles, adorns, beautifies, 
exalts. 



48 


POST-MORTEM LOVE. 


f 0i6it-P0ytjew "gtivt. 

HY is it that so many people keep all 



VV their pleasant thoughts, and kind words 
about a man, bottled and sealed up until he is 
dead, when they come and break the bottle 
over his coffin, and bathe his shroud in fra- 
grance ? Many a man goes through life with 
scarcely one bright, cheering, encouraging, 
helpful word. He toils hard and in lowly 
obscurity. He gives out his life freely and 
unstintedly for others. I remember such a 
man. He was not brilliant ; he was not great ; 
but he was faithful. He had many things to 
discourage him. Troubles thickened about 
his life. He was misrepresented and misun- 
derstood. Everybody believed that he was a 
good man, but no one ever said a kindly or 
pleasant thing to him. He never heard a 
compliment, scarcely ever a good wish. No 
one ever took any pains to encourage him, to 
strengthen his feeble knees, to lighten his 
burdens, or to lift up his heart by a gentle 


POST-MORTEM LOVE. 


49 


deed of love, or by a cheerful word. He was 
neglected. Unkind things were often said of 
him. 

I stood by his coffin, and then there were 
many tongues to speak his praise. There was 
not a breath of aspersion in the air. Men 
spoke of his self-denials, of his work among 
the poor, of his good qualities, of his quiet- 
ness, his modesty, his humility, his pureness 
of heart, his faith and prayer. There were 
many who spoke indignantly of the charges 
that falsehood had forged against him in past 
years, and of the treatment he had received. 
There were enough kind things said during 
the two or three days that he lay in the coffin, 
and while the company stood around his open 
grave, to have blessed him and made him 
happy all his fifty years, and to have thrown 
sweetness and joy about his soul during all 
his painful and weary journey. There was 
enough sunshine wasted about that black 
coffin and dark grave, to have m’ade his whole 
life-path bright as clearest day. But his ears 
were closed then, and could not hear a word 
that was spoken. His heart was still then, 
and could not be thrilled by the grateful 


50 


POST-MORTEM LOVE. 


sounds. He cared nothing then for the sweet 
flowers that were piled upon his coffin. The 
love blossomed out too late. The kindness 
came when the life could not receive its 
blessing. 

And I said then that I would not keep all 
my kind words, and all my pleasant thoughts 
and feelings, about my neighbor, locked up in 
my breast till he is dead. They will do him 
no good then. He will not need them then. 
His dead hand cannot feel the warm pressure. 
Gentle words will not make his pale, cold face 
glow. It will be too late, when he lies in 
the coffin, to seek to make him happy, to lift 
the shadows off his life, or to brighten his 
path. 

It was a beautiful thing that the country 
did on Decoration -day. The gardens were 
stripped of their flowers. Hundreds of thou- 
sands of graves were strewn with the richest 
sweetness and fragrance of earth. Many 
words were spoken of the dead. Their valor 
was praised. Their heroism was lauded. 
Their brave and gallant deeds were recounted. 
Orators exhausted the resources of language 
to find words strong enough, and beautiful 


POST-MORTEM LOVE. 


51 


enough, to weave into garlands for their 
brows. And it was well. It was a fit and 
noble thing to do. It is well, too, to build 
monuments to mark the spots where our dear 
dead sleep, and to inscribe upon them the 
sacred names. The memory of a sweet and 
beautiful life should be kept ever green and 
fresh in our hearts; and there is no richer 
tribute to a life than the sincere witness of 
sorrowing friends around the coffin and the 
grave. It is well that even death has power 
to stop the tongue of detraction ; to subdue 
enmities, jealousies, and animosities; to reveal 
all the beauties and excellences of a man’s 
character; to hide his blemishes and defects; 
and to thaw out the tender thoughts and 
kindly feelings of his neighbors’ hearts. 

But meantime there is a great host of weary 
men and women toiling through life toward 
the grave, who need cheering words and help- 
ful ministries. The incense is gathering to 
scatter about their coffins ; but why should it 
not be scattered in their paths to-day ? The 
kind words are lying in men’s hearts and 
trembling on their tongues, which will be 
spoken by-and-by when these weary ones are 


52 


POST-MORTEM LOVE. 


sleeping ; but why should they not be spoken 
now, when they are needed so much, and 
when their accents would be so pleasing and 
grateful ? 

It costs but little to give men a great deal 
of joy and help. One brought a bunch of 
flowers to my table, and for a whole week 
they filled my room with fragrance. One 
wrote me a cheering letter, breathing a spirit 
of gratitude and love. It came when I was 
weary and depressed, and was like the meal 
prepared by the angel for the old prophet. I 
went on its blessed strength for many days. 
One met me on the street and spoke an en- 
couraging word and grasped me warmly by 
the hand ; and for hours I felt that warm grasp 
and heard that word echoing through my 
soul. A little child may brighten scores of 
lives every day. There is not one of us who 
may not gladden and strengthen many a heart 
between every rising and setting sun. Why 
should we not live to bless the living, to cheer 
the disheartened, to sweeten cups that are 
bitter, to hold up the hands that hang down, 
to comfort those that mourn, to bear joy into 
joyless homes? Kind words will not spoil a 


POST-MORTEM LOVE. 


53 


man. If a sermon helps you it will do the 
preacher no harm to tell him so. If the editor 
writes an article that does you good, he can 
write a still better one if you send him a word 
of thanks. If a book blesses you, do you not 
owe it to the author to write him a grateful 
acknowledgment ? If you know a weary or 
neglected one, would it not be such work as 
angels do, would it not be Christ-like work, 
to seek every opportunity to brighten and 
bless that life ? Do not wait till the eyes are 
closed, the ears deaf, and the heart stilled. 
Do it now. Post-mortem kindnesses do not 
cheer the burdened spirit. Flowers on the 
coffin cast no fragrance backward over the 
weary days. 



54 


TO YOUNG DISCIPLES. 


51)0 D0un:0 

Y OU are just entering upon your Christian 
course. You have felt the strivings of the 
Holy Spirit within you, and have yielded to 
them. You have heard the still, small voice” 
of Jesus calling you, and have turned to fol- 
low him. You have heard the sweet bidding 
of divine love speaking from the midst of the 
sorrowful scenes of the night of betrayal, and 
saying, ” Do this in remembrance of me 
and, obeying this command, you are coming 
to the sacramental table. I desire to impress 
upon your minds this lesson, that the whole 
of your Christian life hereafter is to be simply 
remembering and obeying the words of the 
Lord Jesus. The voice that called you first 
into being, and that has now called you a sec- 
ond time into life, spiritual life, you will hear 
day by day, hour by hour, and moment by 
moment, ever calling you forward to new 
duties, to fresh efforts and struggles, to higher 


TO YOUNG DISCIPLES. 


55 

achievements, to nobler and more Christ-like 
life. 

Do not think that the work is all done. It 
is only begun. God has breathed his forgive- 
ness upon your past life, but his voice to you 
is. Go and sin no more. He has kindled 
within you a spark of his own Spirit ; he has 
put a germ of his own life in your soul ; but 
he would have you grow up into the full 
measure of the stature of Christ. He has 
touched you with a longing for goodness and 
spiritual beauty, but he would lead you up to 
a full realization of all the sweet thoughts, 
hopes, and yearnings that to-day stir in your 
breasts. He has given you a taste of the joys 
that spring out of a sense of pardoned sin, 
and from" communion with himself, but he 
would lead you up the mountain-side, higher 
and higher, until you drink at the fountain- 
head, where there is fulness of joy, and where 
there are pleasures evermore. He has printed 
his own image upon your soul ; the features 
are very dim and faint to-day ; but he would 
lead you in the paths of holiness until your 
lives cast off all their imperfection, and bud 
and blossom in all the sweetness of heavenly 


56 


TO YOUNG DISCIPLES. 


perfection, in the complete, unblemished like- 
ness of your dear Lord. Your new life is but 
a grain of mustard-seed as yet, and it is to 
grow until it becomes a great tree, with deep 
root, tall trunk, wide-spreading branches, and 
rich fruits. You are but babes in Christ now, 
and you are to develop into strong men and 
women, with noble powers, ripened beauty, 
and lives of blessed usefulness. 

And all these things are to be reached, all 
these joys are to be experienced, all these 
sublime attainments are to be gained, simply 
by remembering and obeying the words of the 
Lord Jesus. He will call and you are to fol- 
low. He will call you away from all that is 
wrong, from all imperfection, from all evil 
habits, from all sin. He will call you to vir- 
tue, to truth, to love. You shall hear his 
voice of tenderness in the darkness as well as 
in the light, in the roar of winter’s tempest as 
well as in the quiet summer evening hush. 
Sometimes he will call you where the flowers 
bloom and the birds sing sweetly ; sometimes 
into the desert where there is no beauty and 
no voice of joy ; sometimes he will lead you 
gently by the flowing streams, under the shade 


TO YOUNG DISCIPLES. 


57 


of fragrant trees ; sometimes up among the 
misty mountains, or across the stormy billows 
toward unknown shores. He may often call 
you away from your own pleasure. He may 
lead you in paths that are thorny. He may 
give you duties that seem too hard for you. 
He may call you into conflict, into grief, into 
chambers of sickness, into paths that are 
darkened by the deep shadows of adversity. 

What I want to say to you is, that you may 
always trust him. You may safely follow 
where he leads. You need never fear to obey 
him, though, like Abraham, he call you to 
bring to his altar your dearest and most 
precious joy. He will never call you into any 
wrong path. He will never demand a sacrifice 
which has not in it a blessing for your soul. 
He will ever lead you upwards to sweeter fel- 
lowship, calmer peace, deeper joy, holier life, 
fairer beauty, grander strength, and greater 
usefulness. 

My heart yearns for you with a tenderness 
and a love which I cannot express. And those 
yearnings are for this, not merely that you 
may be saved, but that your Christian lives 
may be beautiful and holy, that you may stand 
5 


53 


TO YOUNG DISCIPLES. 


perfect and complete in all the will of God. I 
want to see you rise above the common mass 
of Christians, and shine with a richer lustre. 
And there is no way that your lives can be 
made so beautiful, so fair, so lovely, so blessed 
and full of blessing, as by remembering the 
words of the Lord Jesus, by keeping your 
hearts full of them, by feeding upon them 
until their sweetness fills your whole soul and 
flows out in every word you speak, in every 
thing you do, in every influence of your life. 

Somewhere I have heard this little fable : 
One digging in the earth found a little lump 
of fragpant, perfumed clay, and asked, “ Where 
did you come from ? Where did you get your 
fragrance ?” “ One laid me on a rose,” said 

the little piece of clay. So the life that re- 
members ever the words of the Lord Jesus 
will be struck through with the fragrance of 
heaven, for these words are flowers gathered 
in the heavenly gardens and borne down to 
earth. And he that lives amid them, and ever 
breathes their sweetness, will have a life per- 
fumed by the odors of heaven. 


MEN WHO COME FROM JESUii. 


Pett xcUo fX0m 

T here are men who seem to be so full of 
divine influences that wherever they go 
they carry blessings. There is a strange power 
in their simplest words which thrills every 
heart. There is a warm glow in their faces 
which seems like the outshining of a great 
altar fire, or a hot furnace of love in their 
bosoms. There is an unction in their prayers 
which takes hold of men’s souls and lifts them 
up into the bosom of God. Their very pres- 
ence brings a heavenly atmosphere. Their 
lives have a holy fragrance. And if you ask 
for the secret you shall find it to be this — they 
have been with Jesus, They live with him; 
they abide in him ; and wherever they go, 
they go right from his bosom. 

These are the mighty ones of the earth. 
They live hard by the gates of heaven, and 
when they come to us they bring their hands 
and their hearts full of rich blessings fresh 
from God. When a man comes in from out- 


6 o who come from JESUS. 


side on a cold, wintry day, he brings winter 
with him on his garments. But when one 
comes from a flower garden into your cham- 
ber, he brings fragrance with him. So when 
a man comes from communing with Jesus in 
the ivory palaces,” “ all his garments smell 
of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia.” He walks 
in the garden of God and comes with gar- 
ments perfumed. Like the men who bore the 
Eshcol grapes from the vine-clad hills of 
Canaan, back into the wilderness, he comes, 
laden with ripe clusters of the fruits, which, 
with his own hands, he has gathered upon 
the heavenly fields. He comes as a vessel, a 
vessel only of wood, or of clay, it may be, but 
a vessel fresh from the fountain, and full to 
the brim of the sweet waters of grace. 

When these men who come from Jesus sit 
down by the bedside of the sick, they have 
something to offer, besides the common cour- 
tesies of friendship, or even the tender words 
of human sympathy and love. They have a 
word from God’s own lips. They bring a 
message from the King. They bear healing 
waters drawn from the deep well of life. When 
they sit down beside the mourner, they have 


MEN WHO COME FROM JESUS. 6 1 


something better than the world’s cold com- 
fort to present. They bring promises which 
shine like lamps in the gloom, and cast their 
bright beam far into the gloomy depths of 
sorrow. When they sit down beside the 
tempted, tried, almost fainting one, they have 
something better to offer than human counsel, 
or a weak human arm. When they stand be- 
fore hungry hearts, they have something better 
than stones to give. They have been with 
Jesus and they bring the “hidden manna” 
from the sanctuary. When they go out 
among the great needs and wants of human 
hearts, they go with their hands full of spirit- 
ual gifts. They live so near to the gates of 
heaven that they catch the accents of the 
angels’ songs, and then come and sing them 
in men’s homes, to cheer the sad and weary of 
earth. They are on such intimate terms with 
Jesus that he reveals to them many of the 
precious secrets of his love, and then they 
come and tell them to others who are bur- 
dened. 

There is no power to be compared for 
a moment with spiritual power. Pompey 
boasted that with one stamp of his foot he 


62 men who come from JESUS. 


could rouse all Italy to arms. But with all 
his power he could not have comforted a 
mourner, nor dried a tear, nor lifted up a 
fainting one, nor led a lost soul to light. The 
achievements of physical power will perish. 
The things that mighty men do will pass 
away. The cities men build will crumble. 
The thrones men rear will topple and fall. 
But the things wrought by spiritual power 
will endure forever. 

They say that a word breathed into the air 
goes on and on forever, in infinite vibrations 
through the fields of space. This may be a 
mere vagary of the scientists, but certain it is 
that good words once spoken will go on for- 
ever in human hearts. Songs sung into the 
ears of sorrow or care will go singing on eter- 
nally. A touch of beauty on a human soul 
will never fade, nor be rubbed out. Joys 
started deep in men’s hearts by spiritual 
truths will never die. The things which are 
done in the name of Christ, and through the 
power of his grace, will last forever. I would 
rather be the obscurest servant in all God’s 
field, and have spiritual power and live to 
bless, to comfort, to heal, to cheer, to lift up. 


MEN WHO COME FROM JESUS. 63 

to feed, and to point souls to the Lamb of 
Calvary, than be the mightiest emperor on 
the globe, ruling over half a continent. This 
power can be gained. God will give it to his 
lowliest. But it can be obtained only in one 
way. Wealth will not give it. The univer- 
sities cannot confer it. Genius has it not 
among its treasures. It is not got in military 
academies. It is not one of the jewels of 
the king’s crown. It can only be had by 
being with Jesus. Live with him, commune 
with him, sit at his feet, lie on his bosom, go 
out daily and hourly from his presence, and 
"^you will be clothed with spiritual power. 

“ When one that holds communion with the skies 
Has filled his urn where those pure waters rise. 

And once more mingles with us meaner things, 

’Tis e’en as if an angel shook his wings ; 

Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide, 

That tells us whence his treasures are supplied.” 



64 


A LIVING CHRIST, 


% Wiving mxm. 

I T has been suggested that one of the faults 
of much evangelical preaching is the too 
exclusive presentation of a suffering, dying, 
dead, and buried Christ, rather than of a risen, 
living, ever-sympathizing, ever-helping Christ. 
This fault results from the desire to hold forth 
“ Christ crucified” as the one, only ground of 
salvation. But the consequence too often is, 
that the only conception of the Saviour pro- 
duced in the minds of the people, is that of 
One who suffered and died. They are led to 
trust for salvation to the one past act of re- 
demption, rather than to the power of an ever- 
present Saviour. Their eyes are turned back 
to the cross, rather than up to the throne. 

A little reflection will satisfy any one that 
the conception of a living Christ is not a vivid 
and powerful one in the minds of the mass of 
Christians. Somehow they read the beautiful 
and tender gospel story, and look back upon 
it as something in the far past, which belongs 


A LIVING CHRIST. 


65 


to them only as a bundle of sweet and fragrant 
memories. They think of Jesus very much 
as of a dear friend they have lost, or as one 
who lived centuries ago a noble life of self- 
sacrifice, but who lives no longer. His his- 
tory is all they have. They read his tender 
words of love, follow him in his gentle min- 
istries, and learn to love him. Then they 
come to his cross, and that seems to be the 
end. His voice is heard no more. His hand 
ministers no more in homes of need. His 
feet come no more on love errands. They 
gather up the precious memories and cherish 
them most sacredly. They wish that they 
had lived when he was on the earth, or that 
he would come again and repeat that won- 
drous life that they might enjoy its blessings. 
But to them he is dead. They have not the 
consciousness of his living presence with 
them. 

Now the Scriptures are at great pains to 
present Christ as a living Saviour. The infi- 
nite importance of his death is everywhere 
recognized ; but mark how all the New Testa- 
ment writers labor to remove every shadow 
of doubt from the fact that he rose again, and 


66 


A LIVING CHRIST. 


how his resurrection is held forth as the most 
important fact in his history, the very founda- 
tion of all gospel truth and of all Christian 
hope. 

His frequent appearances after his resurrec- 
tion were meant to produce and confirm in 
the minds of his disciples a most vivid con- 
ception of himself as living again. He sought 
to blot out of their minds the thought of a 
dead Master, which had so filled their hearts 
with despair while he lay in the grave, and to 
impress upon them by never-to-be-forgotten 
incidents the truth that he was really alive. 
And the apostles carried that conception, that 
glorious consciousness, with them into all 
their work and all their perils. To them Jesus 
was as truly alive and as really with them while 
they preached and suffered, as he ever was 
during the brief years of his human presence. 

Then all the presentations of the epistles 
and especially of the Book of Revelation are 
most vivid pictures of a living Christ. Very 
little is said about a dying Christ, but a great 
deal about him who “ ever liveth.” 

Now, no one believes or preaches that he is 
dead. I am only speaking of the way he is 


A LIVING CHRIST. 


67 

held forth as a Saviour, saving men by his 
death on the cross, rather than by the power 
of his life. Is Christ presented so as to pro- 
duce in the minds and hearts of believers a 
vivid conception of a living person, ever caring 
for them, ever with them ? Do they think of 
him as a Saviour who performed the whole of 
their salvation-work nineteen centuries ago 
when he gave his life for them, or as a Saviour 
who is saving them by his strong arm, moment 
by moment ? 

A vivid realization of Christ as living is 
essential to noble Christian life. How easy 
it is to go to the throne of grace when we feel 
that on that throne sits that same Jesus whose 
tender and beautiful life is delineated on the 
gospel pages ! We remember how compas- 
sionate, how pitiful, how kind he was, and how 
easy it was to go to him, and how lovingly 
he received all who came unto him, never 
turning one away unblest. If he is the God 
who hears our prayers and listens to the re- 
cital of our griefs and cares, how boldly we 
can come to him ! The thought of that “ same 
Jesus” on the heavenly throne, as the God 
with whom we have to do, is a precious one. 


68 


A LIVING CHRIST. 


He is there as our advocate to manage all our 
affairs for us ; he is there to prepare a place 
for us, and to receive us when we go home. 
It is a sweet thought when you are called to 
send your little child out of your warm bosom 
into the darkness of the unseen world, that 
Jesus receives it in his arms, and that hence- 
forth it is in his care. It is a comforting 
thought when things seem to go wrong with 
you, that it is the Jesus of Bethany and Cal- 
vary who presides over the affairs of provi- 
dence. It was a glorious joy when Stephen 
was dying to see that “ same Jesus” standing 
with open arms to receive him. And his eyes 
merely saw what is real with every dying be- 
liever. These joys are lost when there is not 
in the heart a clear consciousness of a living 
Christ. 

Then there is still a further blessing which 
springs out of the faith that realizes a living 
Christ. It is the consciousness of that Sav- 
iour’s presence with each believer all the time. 
Many persons realize that he lives in heaven, 
and manages their affairs for them, and will 
receive them at last; but fail to realize the 
glorious truth of his abiding presence with 


A LIVING CHRIST. 


69 


them. There is no promise of the Scriptures 
repeated over and over again so often as this : 
“ I will be with thee — I am with thee always.” 
Jesus has not left the earth. He never will 
leave it for a moment till the last child has 
reached the heavenly Father’s home. More 
precious still — he never for a moment leaves 
the side of any one believer, from the hour of 
his conversion till he enters heaven to go no 
more out forever. That is the way Jesus saves 
his people, by his abiding presence with thqm. 

It is the consciousness of this we need. It 
is true, but how many realize it ? And if not 
realized it avails us nothing in our hours of 
need. Mary’s heart was breaking in the gar- 
den while Jesus stood close beside her, because 
she did not know that he was with her. What 
a world of comfort and joy came into her heart 
with the consciousness that he stood by her 
side ! In all the Christian’s sorrows and trials 
Jesus is with him. What he wants is to be- 
lieve this, to realize it. Faith makes it a real 
presence, and what more does any one need ? 

For three years the veil that hides God 
from our eyes was lifted to give us a manifes- 
tation of his perpetual presence and ministry 


70 


A LIVING CHRIST. 


of love among men. The gospel record is 
but a few pages torn out of the history of a life 
that has been going on upon the earth since 
the creation, and will go on until the end. 
We have Christ with us as really as the disci- 
ples had. The sinner that comes fresh from 
his sins can find, not atonement merely, but 
the bosom of divine love. The mourner can 
find, not words of comfort only, but the sym- 
pathy and tender heart of the Comforter. The 
tempted, fainting believer can find, not prom- 
ises of strength merely, but the same living, 
mighty hand that Peter found when he began 
to sink in the waves. The lost sinner, crying 
out, finds not merely the assurance of pardon 
and life, but he finds himself lifted up by the 
good shepherd and borne gently along to the 
fold. 



THE NETHER SPRINGS. 


71 


W HEN Caleb’s daughter found that her 
field had no springs of water, she came 
to her father, and he gave her “the upper 
springs and the nether springs.” So God 
gives his children two sets of springs, the 
nether and the upper. Religion has “the 
promise of the life that now is” as well as “ of 
that which is to come.” He gives us springs 
which burst out on the earth. He bestows 
rich spiritual blessings and comforts upon us 
in this life. He sends rills and rivers of grace 
through our poor, parched, sorrow-smitten 
earthly portion, fertilizing and enriching it. 
Who can begin to enumerate the blessings 
which religion brings into our lives, even in 
this world ? 

There are those who think that the Chris- 
tian’s life is cheerless and gloomy, empty of 
happiness and joy. But is it so? Let us see 
what religion brings. It brings the revelation 
of the love of God. Is it a gloomy thought 


72 


THE NETHER SPRINGS. 


to a man that God loves him, that he loves 
him with an everlasting love, with a love in- 
finitely deeper and more tender than a mother’s 
love, with a love that never changes, and 
whose warm currents no unfaithfulness, no 
wandering, no imperfection, can chill or turn 
back ? Religion brings redemption. Is it a 
gloomy thing to a weary prisoner to go out 
of his dark dungeon and find himself in the 
open fields, in the sweet sunshine, enjoying all 
the blessings of liberty ? And does it make 
a man sad, does it darken his life, to be led 
out of Satan’s gloomy prison-house into the 
glorious liberty of the children of God ? Re- 
ligion brings full and complete salvation. And 
is it a gloomy thought to know that you are 
saved from eternal perdition, and have ever- 
lasting life ? 

Religion brings peace. In the midst of a 
great battle, while a thousand cannon shook 
the hills, and the whole heaven quivered with 
the reverberations, there was a moment’s pause. 
Not a gun was heard far or near. And during 
that pause a sparrow sang sweetly out from 
the branches of an old tree that stood in the 
midst of the plain of battle. When the can- 


THE NETHER SPRINGS. 


73 


non thundered again the sparrow was silent. 
It only sang in the brief pauses of the awful 
strife. And so it is with the peace of this 
world. Now and then you hear a single voice 
singing sweetly out of a man’s life, in the brief 
pauses of struggle, care, and discontent. But 
soon the strife begins again, and the bird-note 
of peace is hushed. No worldly man has un- 
broken peace. Only a single silver strain is 
heard now and then. There is only a brief 
moment of calm here and there, in a life full 
of anxiety, unrest, and discord. 

But religion brings peace, the peace of the 
Lord Jesus, a peace that is not broken by any 
storm, which sings in the bosom, not merely 
a single voice in the pauses of earth’s battle, 
but a whole choir of voices, unceasing through 
all the din and strife. 

Here is a little cottage by the sea. The 
night is dark and stormy. The waves break 
and thunder on the shore. The clouds pour 
out their rains in angry torrents. The tem- 
pest beats and roars about the cottage. But 
all the evening there is joy within. The lamp 
burns with bright beam. The cheerful fire 
glows upon the hearth. A happy circle 
6 


74 


THE NETHER SPRINGS. 


gathers about the table. Joyful songs ring 
out into the gloom. The dark night of storm 
flings no shadows inside. The angry tempest 
breaks not the gladness of that sweet home. 
Picture this of the peace religion brings. The 
world is full of storms, but there is joy in the 
Christian’s heart through all. Songs ring out 
in the blackest night of trial. Job had this 
p^ace, and it was not broken by all his ad- 
versities. Paul had it, and he went singing 
through all his tribulations, persecutions, and 
trials. An aged Christian woman whom I 
know has it. She is poor. Every joint in her 
body is drawn out of its place. For thirteen 
years she has suffered the most excruciating 
pains without one hour’s relief. But no little 
child on its mother’s bosom is happier than 
she. She knows that she is the Lord’s child, 
and that he is fitting her for eternal glory. 
She knows that all she has to bear the Lord 
sends in tender love. The cross of Jesus 
sweetens all the bitterness of her life. Does 
such blessed peace make men gloomy ? Does 
it make life cheerless and sad ? 

Religion reveals a loving providence, run- 
ning all through the Christian’s life, weaving 


THE NETHER SPRINGS. 


75 


out of all its tangled threads a web of beauty. 
It shows a Father’s hand in each event, taking 
the poison out of trouble, drawing the serpent- 
tooth out of every evil thing, bringing good 
out of all things, sheltering, guiding, and 
blessing his children. Is the thought of such 
a loving, overruling providence a saddening 
or gloomy one ? 

There are sorrows in the Christian’s life. 
Religion does not save from suffering. But 
while sorrows, like hot, desert winds, desolate 
the life of the worldly man, they fertilize, en- 
rich, and bless the portion of the child of God ; 
for with his “ south land,” God has given him 
springs of comfort whose waters flow through 
every valley of tribulation. Are the consola- 
tions of religion calculated to make men sad 
or to make life cheerless and gloomy ? 

Nay, there is no such joyous life in this 
world as that of the believer. Springs of 
heavenly blessing burst out all over it. It has 
not a single desert spot. It matters not how 
small it may be. The Christian’s little cot- 
tage and garden are better than the worldly 
man’s thousand acres. The poor widow’s one 
garret-room is better than the gorgeous palace 


76 


THE NETHER SPRINGS. 


of him whose splendors are not blessed by 
the smile of God. 

I cannot even name all the blessings which 
religion pours into our lives through its nether 
springs. It changes a desert into a garden. 
It pours sunshine into our hearts. It enriches 
our poverty. It makes our hard crust soft and 
sweet as angels’ bread. It surrounds us with 
beautiful things. It fills our hearts and lives 
with tokens of divine love. It sings to us in 
our weary hours. It cheers us when we are 
disheartened. It takes all the anxiety, fear, 
and unrest out of our lives. For it makes us 
children of God. And what matters it that 
this life is sometimes bitter, that burdens are 
heavy, that work is hard ; that you get no rest 
from toil ; that night and day your poor, tired 
fingers must ply the needle, or be busy in 
household duties ; that there come no pauses 
in your weary life ? What matters it that your 
heart’s song is hushed every now and then by 
the cry of grief or choked by tears ? What 
matters it that you are poor, that your clothes 
are threadbare, that sometimes you have only 
a piece of crust and a cup of water? The 
Lord knows what things you need. And 


THE NETHER SPRINGS, 


77 


what matters it that your earthly portion is so 
small and so poor, while you are but a pilgrim 
here, while heaven is your home, and while 
you have a glorious possession laid up there 
in reserve ? 

There was a godly man who built himself a 
house. It was a pleasant home. There was 
joy in it. But he said that the best thing 
about that home was, that, sitting at his own 
fireside, he could see his father’s house away 
on a distant hill-top. No matter the weather,” 
said he, “ whether winter or summer, spring or 
autumn, — no matter the sky, whether cloudless 
or stormy, — when I sit by my east window, 
my father’s roof and chimney-tops, and the 
door into my father’s house, are always visible 
to my sight. And when night comes on, no 
matter the darkness — far away over the fields 
and valleys gleams the light in my father’s 
windows.” Blessed and happy is he who 
builds his earthly dwelling so high that from 
its doors he can ever see afar off his heavenly 
Father’s house with its many mansions ; and 
that, in the darkest nights, its lights shine 
down upon him. He will never be lonely, 
nor afraid. He will never lose hope. He will 


78 


THE NETHER SPRINGS. 


breathe heaven’s sweetness and catch the ac- 
cents of heaven’s songs, and his eye will be 
charmed with glimpses of heaven’s beauties. 

Say not that religion makes life gloomy. 
However dreary the Christian’s earthly lot 
may be, hidden springs burst up all over it. 
There is no sorrow which has not in it a hid- 
den well of comfort. There is no want up 
through whose dry crust blessed supply will 
not burst, if we but dig for it. In the West, 
on the broad prairies, I have seen the tall der- 
rick looming up like a ghastly skeleton in the 
distance. It tells a story of disappointment 
and vain search. Here men dug and drilled 
for water. They spent a fortune on this spot, 
hoping to strike a living spring. They went 
down a thousand feet or more, but found 
nothing. But there is no such vain search in 
the believer’s field for wells of blessing. The 
worldly man may dig down ten thousand feet 
in his portion. He may find gold and silver. 
He may find diamonds. But he will not find 
water. Ghastly derricks stand all over the 
broad fields of many an unbelieving one, show- 
ing where he has sought for joy, for peace, 
for satisfaction, for comfort, all in vain. But 


THE NETHER SPRINGS. 


79 


the child of God may strike his pick in any- 
where, and fresh water will flow out. Every 
spot of his portion is blessed and full of bless- 
ing. Every circumstance is a well-curb fencing 
in its flowing spring. He has only to drop the 
bucket of faith anywhere to draw up heavenly 
gladness, comfort, and good. The deep fur- 
rows that sorrow ploughs in his life are only 
channels through which the blessed waters 
flow to irrigate his field and enrich his heart. 
The strokes that he feels so often and that 
give him so much pain, are but the smitings 
of the rod of God, to bring out fresh water 
from the rock. These nether springs burst 
out all over the believer’s field. 



8o 


THE BASIS OF FRIENDSHIP. 


G od has made us social beings needing 
sympathy and affection. A man living on 
a solitary island in the midst of the sea, cut off 
from all human companionship, seeing no face, 
feeling no warm hand-grasp, hearing no word 
from human tongue, without sympathy, with- 
out help, torn out of the great web of human 
life and love, and cast away, would be mis- 
erable indeed. A man might have all the 
riches of the world, and live in a palace filled 
with all the comforts and luxuries of civiliza- 
tion, but if he had no friends he would be 
very poor. 

It is the part of wisdom, then, to seek to 
have friends, and to form close and tender 
friendships in the days of youth and prosperity. 
And the word of God tells us that He that 
hath friends must show himself friendly.” 

First, he must be worthy of friends. Even 
Cicero taught that true, genuine friendship 
can exist only between the good and virtuous. 


THE BASIS OF FRIENDSHIP. 


8l 


Wicked men may combine together in some 
sort of compact, which they may call friend- 
ship, but it is not worthy of that sacred and 
holy name. It is based only on self-interest ; 
or its bond is sin. No false heart is capable of 
friendship. A true friend is one who “ loveth 
at all times.” Then a selfish man cannot have 
friends. Selfishness is a deadly Upas in a heart, 
blighting all the beautiful flowers which God 
has planted there. 

There are a great many people who want 
friends, to help them. They want influence, 
assistance, gain, favor, advertisement. They 
want friends as the king wants steps up to his 
throne, to walk upon up to greatness and 
power. They want friends as the river wants 
springs and rills, to pour water into its chan- 
nels. They want friends as the auctioneer 
wants a bell-ringer, as the quack-medicine 
man wants rocks and boards and trees by the 
wayside. Selfish men want friends to further 
their own purposes, to enlarge their own pros- 
perity, to add to their own fame, to help them 
over the hard places. And when a man can 
no longer be of any use to them, they do not 
want to be cumbered with his friendship. 


82 


THE BASIS OF FRIENDSHIP, 


Selfishness is, therefore, death to friendship. 
Only truth and truth will wed. Friendship 
must be mutual. Love may exist on one side, 
but friendship requires two hearts reciprocally 
attached. It is the knitting together of souls. 
As when two trees, standing and growing side 
by side, put out their roots and branches, till 
the roots and branches of both are woven, 
tangled, and matted together, branch clasping 
branch, and root binding root, so in friendship 
each heart’s tendrils of affection lay hold on 
the other, and weave themselves into a holy 
web of love, binding both hearts together. 
Mutual unselfishness, reciprocal self-sacrifice, 
is the true basis of friendship. 

Two people who both must have their own 
way all the time, cannot be friends. Where 
one always has his own way, and the other 
always yields, there is, on the one side tyranny, 
on the other side slavish subjection ; but there 
is no friendship. Friendship implies mutual 
unselfishness. Each forgets self and lives for 
the other. Each thinks of the other’s com- 
fort, forgetting his own. 

And such a friendship binds two hearts 
together indissolubly. “ They twain shall be 


THE BASIS OF FRIENDSHIP. 


83 


one flesh/' is not a mere figure of speech, as 
a picture of true marriage. It is just what 
God meant should be actually realized in eveiy 
marriage. But it means more than living to- 
gether in the same house, more than a part- 
nership, more than forbearance and toleration, 
more than authority and subjection. It means 
an actual union of hearts, a growing together 
of lives, until one pulse throbs in both, and 
one spirit animates the purposes and thoughts 
of both. The one life gives itself to the other ; 
they meet on the altar ; the fire of God falls 
upon them; and they are “no more twain, 
but now one.” 

And nothing can ever separate them. They 
were not true friendships, not genuine mar- 
riages, which are now destroyed. They were 
only external. The bond was not friendship. 
When two hearts are truly united, they can- 
not be torn asunder. Mountains and oceans 
may be between them. But mountain-walls 
cannot divide hearts, and seas cannot drown 
love. 

Time wears out many a beautiful robe. The 
threads of many a web decay and turn to 
ashes through the lapse of years. But the 


84 


THE BASIS OF FRIENDSHIP, 


threads of friendship’s web are silver and 
golden. They are as bright after scores of 
years as ever. 

Then even death has no power to destroy 
friendship. True marriage, true union of 
hearts, is absolutely inseparable. They neither 
marry, nor are given in marriage, in heaven ; 
and yet death is not a divorce court. When 
hearts are joined together on earth, their love 
sanctified by the divine love, their union sealed 
by the blood of Christ, they shall walk on 
together in white forever. Meeting again on 
the other side, they shall be like two friends, 
separated for a time, but brought together 
again. They will have a great many ques- 
tions to ask, and a great many things to 
tell each other. And they will take up the 
threads of life and love they dropped when 
the one was taken and the other left, and will 
go on weaving the beautiful garment forever. 

But it is only of true friendship that I affirm 
these things, and I believe such friendships 
are too rare. Too many are but for a day. 
Adversity blights them. Separation sweeps 
them clean out of the heart. They were not 
friendships. They were only selfish compacts, 


THE BASIS OF FRIENDSHIP. 


85 


or mere external unions. If any one would 
have his heart blessed by such a friendship as 
I have described, he must lay self on the altar. 
The fire that does not consume one’s own 
heart, is not the fire that comes down from 
heaven. 

Then again, to have friends one must be 
friendly. When certain savages looked for 
the first time into a mirror, they wanted to 
break it in pieces, because of its horrid ugli- 
ness ; whereas, it was only their own black, 
disfigured, tattooed faces that they saw. Many 
people think this world very cold, very cruel, 
very unfriendly; while really they see only 
pictures of their own hearts mirrored in 
society. Every man will hear the echoes of 
his own voice from society. You will get 
about as much as you give. Be friendly and 
you will have friends. 

Then friendships need cultivation. They 
are like rare and beautiful flowers, brought to 
our wintry clime from the warm south. They 
require the most tender care. No flowers in 
this world are so tender as these love-plants, 
transplanted from heaven into our earthly 
gardens. Bitter words fall like frosts upon 


86 the basis of friendship. 

them. Neglect, wrong, cruelty, unkindness 
will destroy them. 

And no hand can restore a blighted friend- 
ship. No hand can ever give back the beauty 
of the flower when the frost has destroyed it; 
for no loom of earth can weave again its deli- 
cate garments, and no hand can paint again its 
glorious beauty. And there is no skill of 
man that can restore the tender grace and 
beauty, and the sweet and rich fragrance of 
friendship’s heavenly plants, when the frosts 
of unkindness or bitterness have fallen upon 
them. We must, cherish sacredly, then, the 
choice friendships of our hearts. We must 
cultivate them tenderly. We must pour our 
heart’s warmest sunshine upon them. We 
must shield them from the frosts. 

This is true of the friendships and loves of 
home, though many seem to forget it. The 
wooing too often ends with the honeymoon, 
and the two who have sworn **to love and 
cherish each the other, until death shall sepa- 
rate them,” do the loving enough perhaps, 
but forget the cherishing. There is no friend- 
ship on the earth that needs cultivation so 
much as that of marriage. It should not be 


THE BASIS OF FRIENDSHIP. 


87 

taken as a matter of course. It should be 
nourished with tenderest and most assiduous 
care. And so with all the home loves. There 
is no place where one should take so great 
pains to be kind, gentle, patient, courteous, 
and loving, as at home. A man should al- 
ways be on his very best behavior there. He 
should never carry a thunder-cloud into his 
own home, scathing and shivering the hearts 
that are dearest to him. Let him do his 
thundering somewhere else, and carry clear 
blue sky home. 

Now a great many men who are brilliant, 
sparkling, courteous away from home, in bus- 
iness circles, or in society, are dull, gloomy, 
gruff and awful at home. It may be that they 
have very loving hearts ; that they carry their 
dear ones very deep in their bosoms. But 
why does their love never find expression? 
Water plenty in a deep well, with nothing to 
draw it out, will not refresh a thirsty man. 
Mary broke the box that its odor might fill all 
the house where Jesus was. So should we 
break the sealed box that holds our love, that 
its sweetness may flow out. 

Why is it that so many men are so sparing 


88 the basis of friendship . 

of their expressions of love ? They have it 
in their power to add immeasurably to the joy 
of their loved ones, whose hearts are yearning 
and hungering for the tender words they used 
to hear. Why do they not do it ? 

** We have careful thought for the stranger, 

And smiles for the sometime guest ; 

But oft for our own the bitter tone, 

Though we love our own the best.” 

When you go home in the evening, surprise 
your wife with the tenderness of the old woo- 
ing days. You will lift the burdens from her 
heart, and open a fountain of glad joy there. 
Remember, you swore to cherish her. Then 
go and romp with the children. Make them 
happy and make them love you. Take care 
of your own garden. 



LAY WORJC. 


89 


I T is certainly one of the most hopeful indi- 
cations of the age in which we live that the 
church is awaking to the importance of call- 
ing all her forces, lay as well as clerical, into 
the field, to labor for the Master. There was 
a time, not back beyond the memory of living 
men, when a strong and stubborn prejudice 
existed in the minds of many Christian peo- 
ple, and especially, it must be confessed, in the 
.minds of many Christian ministers, against 
almost every form and variety of lay work. 
But these prejudices are vanishing from the 
church. The feeling is rapidly gaining ground 
that it is the duty of every Christian man and 
every Christian woman to be actively engaged 
in some part of the Lord’s work. The inquiry 
now heard on every hand, is. How can we get 
the people to work ? How can we develop 
the energies and forces that lie useless in the 
hearts and hands of the laity ? 

For there is certainly a vast amount of 
7 


90 


LAV WORK, 


unutilized power lying idle in the Christian 
church. There are men in almost every con- 
gregation, whose tongues God has touched 
with the gift of eloquence, who, on the plat- 
form or at the bar, hold their auditors en- 
chained, and whose eloquence, if it were em- 
ployed in the church of God and anointed by 
the Holy Ghost, would tell mightily against 
sin and for salvation. There are men with 
gentle and persuasive manner, who, if they 
should go, baptized from on high, into the 
streets and alleys where sinners are perishing^ 
might win many souls for Christ. There are 
men rich in Christian experience, who know 
the way of temptation and the joy of victory, 
who could be like guiding guardian angels to 
many a struggling, stumbling young Christian 
who is in danger of perishing by the way for 
want of such a friend. There are men and 
women with deep, tender sympathies and large 
hearts, who could bear richest blessings into 
homes of bereavement and sorrow. 

Yet these noble gifts and powers are locked 
up in the hearts and arms of God’s people, 
and yield no blessing to the world and no 
revenue of praise to the Master. There is 


LAY WORK. 


91 


gold enough locked up in the hills and moun- 
tains, undigged and uncoined, to make every 
man, woman, and child in the world a million- 
aire. And I believe there is power enough 
locked up in the Christian church, idle, un- 
used, if it were developed and utilized, to bring 
the whole world to the Redeemer’s feet in a 
few brief years. 

And no one will deny that these slumbering 
energies and idle resources should be set 
agoing for the good of the world and the 
divine glory. God gives a man no power 
which he does not wish him to employ. 
Possession of a gift is therefore the divine 
ordination for the exercise of that gift. No 
talent is to be laid up in a napkin. It was 
Cromwell, I believe, who, finding in a chapel 
silver statues of the apostles, commanded that 
they be taken down and coined into money, 
that they might go about doing good. So 
God would have all the idle, unused talents of 
his people coined and sent out to bless the 
world. 

And surely there is need that every slum- 
bering energy of the church should be called 
out. Ordained ministers alone cannot evan- 


92 


LAY WORK. 


gelize the whole world. They are too few in 
number to carry the gospel into every alley 
and court, and into every home. Then there 
are many kinds of work which can be better 
done by Christian laymen, full of the love and 
spirit of Christ, than by any ordained minis- 
ter. There are spheres into which they can 
enter freely, carrying the power of the gospel, 
which are sealed against the professional min- 
ister. 

These facts admitted, the question arises : 
How can these idle functions be utilized? 
How can every Christian be induced to em- 
ploy the gift God has bestowed upon him, for 
the conversion of the world? This is the 
question which waits and waits at our doors 
for solution. There is scarcely a pastor any- 
where who has not wept bitterly over his vain, 
or all but vain, efforts to call out the Christian 
life and energy of his people. 

There are no patent-right methods for de- 
veloping Christian energies. And yet, cer- 
tainly an important part of every pastor’s 
work is to get his people to work. The best 
Christian minister is not he who does the most 
work himself, but he, who, doing his own part 


ZAV WOJ^K, 


93 

well, sets hundreds of other hearts and hands 
to work also. 

Doubtless, training-schools are good. There 
are hundreds of Christians whose hearts burn 
with the desire to work for Christ, who need 
practical suggestions and instructions. And 
yet it seems to me there is something wanting 
back of all mere technical training. It is easy 
enough to arouse men to work spasmodically. 
In revivals everybody works, but when the 
excitement passes away, everybody lays off 
the harness. We want Christians who will 
work from deep principle and not from mere 
impulse. We want, not mountain torrents, 
foaming and dashing now and then, but deep 
rivers, whose springs are born of the mountain 
rocks, and flow on through summer and win- 
ter. If men’s hearts are full of the love of 
Christ, they will work. Nothing will discour- 
age them or chill their ardor. You cannot 
chain them back. What we want, then, is 
more heart piety. The best way to make a 
tree fruitful is to attend well to the roots. 
The best way to produce fruitful Christians is 
to care well for the roots of Christian life. 
What is needed, then, for the developing of 


94 


LAY WORK. 


Christian energies, is a more thorough conse- 
cration, a better heart-life, a closer walk with 
God, more of the indwelling of Christ. 

Can there, then, be any better training- 
school for Christian workers than a school 
for the simple study of God’s Word? Can- 
not much of the superficialness of our Chris- 
tian life be traced back to the lack of vital 
truth in the heart ? If the fountain be empty, 
can the streams flow full ? 

Besides, if men are to preach, or teach, or 
give comfort, they must have the living Word 
in them to dispense. God will bless nothing 
else. Of Paul the Lord said that he was a 
vessel” to bear his name to others. And that 
is all he wants any preacher, lay or clerical, 
to be ; a vessel, a cup to bear the water of life 
to others. And the cup is nothing in itself. 
The most beautiful vessel of gold, if empty, 
will not quench the thirst; but the common- 
est earthen vessel, if filled with cold water 
from the spring, will bear relief, comfort, and 
life to thirsty lips. No one, then, is qualified to 
be a Christian worker, whether in the pulpit, 
the Sabbath-school, or in the homes of men, 
who is not full of the living, life-giving Word. 


MV RESPONSIBILITY. 


95 


How can any one give what he does not 
himself possess ? How can an empty vessel 
quench human thirst ? 

Let the people’s hearts be full of the Word 
of God. It will serve a double purpose. It 
will quicken their own souls and fire them 
with zeal, and it will give them something to 
bear to others. 





HAT we want in our churches to give 


VV them power and the highest usefulness 
is the grasping and realizing of the thought 
of individual responsibility. A church is 
nothing but an aggregation of individuals. 
The life of a church is simply the life of all 
its individual members working together in 
one organized body. The zeal of a church is 
simply the zeal of all its members fused and 
burning together. The devotion of a church 
is a hundred, or a few hundred, coals glowing 
upon one altar. The good works of a church 
are simply the good works of all its members. 
In his own place, and to the extent of his own 


MV RESPONSIBILITY. 


96 

power, every member, even the humblest, is 
responsible for the life, activity, prosperity, 
and usefulness of the church to which he 
belongs. 

Take up a single point of responsibility 
from the many that attach to individual 
church membership. The truth should be 
realized that all revival and spiritual quick- 
ening in the church must come through indi- 
vidual hearts. We deplore the coldness of 
the church, its languishing devotion, its di- 
minishing fervor and zeal, its spiritual dead- 
ness and lethargy. We sing revival songs. 
We pray revival prayers. We preach revival 
sermons. And we wonder why revival never 
comes. 

But how is it in the individual hearts? Has 
the revival begun there yet? Everybody is 
looking after the condition of the church so 
intently that he has no time to look after his 
own heart. We need more Nathans to talk 
parables to our delinquent Davids, and by 
their pungent home -thrust, “Thou art the 
man,” to drive them to their closets, to their 
Bibles, to their God, and to the care of their 
own hearts. The best thing any man can do 


MV RESPONSIBILITY, 


97 


toward the cultivation of a state or county is 
to cultivate well his own farm, or his own 
field or garden. He would not be a very 
useful man who should spend his time in 
finding fault with his neighbor’s farming, or 
with the general state of agriculture, and allow 
his own field to become overgrown with weeds 
and thorns. And the same is true in the 
church. The only revival that will bless the 
church is that which shall begin in the indi- 
vidual hearts of the church membership. And 
the very first thing for every Christian to do 
is to secure the quickening and reviving of 
his own spiritual life. 

Hence every Christian owes it to the Mas- 
ter and to his church, to live in close com- 
munion with God, to walk in the Spirit, to be 
filled with the Holy Ghost. 

The great river that flows through the 
valley, and bears a nation’s wealth on its 
bosom, is born of the ten thousand springs 
that flow out upon the hillsides and moun- 
tains, and burst up in the meadows and fields. 
So the great power of a strong and noble 
Christian church is born of the hearts of its 
individual members. The springs which com- 


98 


MV RESPONSIBILITY. 


pose it flow out of the secret closets, and from 
under the family altars of the people. 

There is nothing, therefore, which tells so 
fatally upon the spirituality of a church, as 
the decay of home religion and closet devo- 
tion. It affects it just as the drying up of the 
springs affects the river. Every Christian 
owes it then to Christ to make his home 
religion holy and heavenly. It is to be 
feared that the family altar is crumbling down 
in too many Christian households, that the 
old Bible is gathering dust on the shelf, and 
that home piety is losing its vigor and life. 
A traveler tells of tarrying for a night in a 
village among the mountains and lakes of 
Scotland, and witnessing this beautiful scene. 
At nightfall, suddenly, every villager disap- 
peared from the streets. There was scarcely 
one to be seen. And when he asked where 
they had all gone, the answer was, “ They 
have gone to family prayers, sir.” What a 
holy scene — a whole village bowing at the 
same hour in their evening prayers ! Could 
this be realized in all the homes of every 
Christian church in the land, what rich bless- 
ings would flow out into the churches ! 


MY RESPONSIBILITY. 


99 


Then still back of the family altar, as a 
spring of spiritual power, is the secret closet 
of prayer and communion. Many a precious 
revival, which has resulted in the most glori- 
ous blessing to the church and to the world, 
has been the open answer to the secret cries 
of the closet. What a mighty power would 
a whole church of wrestling Jacobs be ! It is 
back in these hidden springs that revival must 
begin, and out of these secret fountains that 
spiritual power in the church must flow. Re- 
vival is a personal matter. Every member is 
responsible for the life of the church. Every 
member should look well to his own heart. 
Let each keep his own little garden, and there 
will be no neglected spots in the great vine- 
yard of God. 



100 


EXPLANATION. 


P ETER could not understand why Jesus 
should so condescend as to wash his feet. 
It perplexed and puzzled him, and he shrank 
from submitting to it. Jesus said, “ What I 
do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt 
know hereafter.” And so it proved. There 
came days afterwards when he understood it 
all, when he knew why his Master had done 
it, and when he truly saw beauty, wisdom, 
love, richest instruction, and divine disclosure 
in it. 

And the same principle applies all through 
life. There are many things in the providence 
of God which at the time are dark and ob- 
scure, but which the future makes clear and 
plain. The Lord lays us aside in the midst 
of our usefulness, he desolates our homes, he 
breaks our harp-strings, he pours bitterness 
into our cups of sweetness. Our lives are full 
of strange, perplexing things, and we do not 
know what they mean. Our dim eyes cannot 


EXPLANATION, 


lOI 


read off the dark pages. Our dull ears can- 
not hear the voice of love that speaks out to 
us from every circumstance. Our heavy 
hearts cannot perceive the love that throbs 
with full pulse in every event. 

But there will come a day when every dark 
page in our life’s history shall be explained, 
when all the tangle and confusion shall be 
unraveled, and the web shall lie before us 
woven through unto the end, warp and woof, 
with threads of gold and silver. This word 
of Christ is the key to all the dark and strange 
providences in the life of every believer: 
‘‘ What I do thou knowest not now, but thou 
shalt know hereafter.” 

One reason for the present obscurity is our 
ignorance, or present limited knowledge. We 
know now only in part. We see only through 
a glass darkly. The boy enters the college, 
and the teacher puts into his hand a page of 
Greek, and asks him to read it. But he can- 
not understand a sentence of it. He cannot 
spell out a single word. He cannot tell what 
one letter is. It is a page of hieroglyphics to 
him. It is full of mysteries. But the years 
roll on. He applies himself to the study of 


102 


EXPLANATION. 


the language. He masters the alphabet; he 
learns to spell out the words, and then to 
translate. By- and -by commencement -day 
comes, and the professor hands him again the 
same page that so puzzled and perplexed him 
on the day of his matriculation. It is all plain 
now. He reads it off with perfect ease; he 
understands every word. There is beauty for 
him now in every line. Every sentence con- 
tains some golden truth. It is a page of the 
New Testament in the very words first written 
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; and 
words of love, of heavenly wisdom, of divine 
instruction lie upon the page. As he reads 
they thrill his whole soul, and fill all his heart 
with the warmth and tender joy of heaven. 
Every word is bright with the hidden fires of 
God’s love. Riper knowledge has unlocked 
to him all the mysteries of the page. 

We are all scholars in God’s school. The 
lessons set for us seem at first like the pages 
of an unknown language. We cannot pro- 
nounce the words. We cannot understand 
their meaning. They confuse and perplex 
us. We see no wisdom, no beauty, no love 
in them. But the passing years bring riper 


EXPLANATION. 


103 


wisdom and fuller knowledge. Every day 
the past becomes plainer ; and when we stand 
at the end of our school-days the old confus- 
ing pages will be clear and simple to us. We 
shall be able to read them off with ease. Then 
we shall see that every line held a golden 
lesson for our hearts ; that every providence in 
our lives was one of God’s precious love- 
thoughts written out for us ; and the whole 
page will glow with divine beauty. Only 
fuller knowledge is needed to explain to us 
much of the mystery of our lives ; and in the 
cloudless light and perfect revelation of 
heaven, every shadow of mystery will vanish, 
and the strangest providences will seem as 
plain and easy as childhood’s first lessons are 
to ripened and cultured manhood. 

Another reason why many of the Lord’s 
ways seem so strange to us is because we see 
them only in their incompleteness. We must 
wait until they are finished before we can 
fully understand what God is doing. In the 
artist’s studio you may see pictures that are 
only faint outlines. There are the branches 
of a tree and no trunk ; or there is the trunk 
and no branches. There is a head, only, fin- 


104 


EXPLANATION, 


ished, or the outline picture of a man with 
only one arm or one hand filled out. No one 
would judge of the artist’s work in this un- 
finished state. He would wait until all his 
pictures were completed. And as our lives 
appear to ourselves we see them when God is 
in the very midst of his work upon them. The 
work of sanctification is the process of bring- 
ing out the features of spiritual and divine 
beauty in human souls. And in this process 
the Divine Artist oftentimes employs trials as 
his instruments. He first seems to destroy. 
But tribulation worketh patience. Many a 
man learns submission when the Father’s 
hand rests so heavily upon him that he can- 
not rise. Many a feature of beauty in the 
soul is brought out in the darkness of afflic- 
tion. The process seems to be destructive, 
but afterwards it yields the peaceable fruits of 
righteousness. Not at the time, but afterwa7^ds. 
When God finishes his work it is beautiful 
and very good. 

There was a time when the heart of Jacob 
was well-nigh crushed by an accumulation of 
adversities. Twenty years before, Joseph had 
been torn out of his arms and slain as he 


EXPLANATION. 


105 


supposed. Now Simeon was lying in a dark 
dungeon in Egypt, under the hand of a des- 
potic lord. And Benjamin, too, was to be 
carried away. In the bitterness of his soul 
he cried out, “All these things are against 
me.” But these things were not against him, 
God had not yet finished his work. The final 
result had not yet been wrought out. All 
things seemed against him, but he lived to 
praise the Lord for all the strange provi- 
dences which appeared so cruel at that hour. 
These were but the rude blocks out of which 
God was building up a beautiful home for his 
old age, and with which he was laying the 
foundation of future greatness and glory for 
his family. They were links in a golden 
chain of blessing. 

So it ever is, “ Hereafter thou shalt know.” 
Wait till God has completed his work, and 
then all shall be well. You may see it even 
on the earth. Before you close your eyes in 
death you may see the good brought out of 
the seeming evil of your life. But if not, if 
you die with the mystery still unsolved, one 
moment in heaven will explain all. Then 
you shall see all things completed. You shall 
8 


io6 


EXPLANA TION. 


see the web out of the loom, all its beautiful 
figures perfect, not one thread dropped or 
tangled. You shall see the temple finished, 
every block in its place, and the whole 
adorned with glory. You shall see the pic- 
ture when the artist has put the last touches 
to it, and when it appears no more marred 
and spoiled, as you thought it would be 
by so much trial, but perfect and beautiful, 
bearing in every feature the likeness of Christ. 
Then you shall see all the providences of 
your life carried out to their final result. 
You shall see both the discipline and its 
blessing ; both the affliction and its rich 
fruits ; both the furnace-fires and the brilliant 
gold. 

When the night comes on, when the mists 
and fogs darken the sky and hide the stars, 
and the vessel cannot be guided, the sailor 
drops his anchor and waits for the morning. 
So Christian faith may do in the hour of 
darkness and perplexity. It cannot see the 
good or the wisdom of the providences of 
life, but it knows that the hand of love is 
shaping them all, and that the end shall be 
blessing and glory. It knows that the morn- 


CHAINS OF GOLD. 


107 


ing will come, that the mists will clear away, 
and it may drop the anchor and wait for the 
day. 




“ More things are wrought by prayer 
Than this world dreams of.” 



HE power of prayer never can be under- 


stood on earth. What wonders it has 
wrought cannot even be imagined. It is one 
of the forces of the world which is not down 
in the philosopher’s scheme, and whose influ- 
ence on the events and results of life is not 
the subject of mathematical calculation. 

What souls prayer has saved, what wan- 
derers it has reclaimed, what fainting ones it 
has cheered and upborne, what tempted ones 
it has nerved for new struggles, only heaven 
can reveal. By prayer 

“ The whole round world is every way 
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.” 

And, surely, among all prayers that go up 
to God, none are dearer or more availing than 
the prayers of parents for their children. 


I 08 CHAINS OF GOLD. 

They are the hallowed breathings of the 
purest, tenderest love. Such prayers, if per- 
sistent, believing, and importunate, God al- 
ways answers in the end. Monica prays for 
her son ; he goes deeper and deeper into sin, 
but she will not give him up. For many years 
while he wanders far from God, she stays at 
her altar. At last all her intercessions are 
answered in one hour when her son Augustine 
falls down at Jesus’ feet. 

The mother of John Newton struggled 
mightily for her child. When he was eight 
years old she died. For twenty years her 
prayers remained unanswered, while he 
plunged into the vilest depths of sin. But the 
faithful God sent the answer at last. And 
there are thousands who have been saved by 
a mother’s prayers. 

A child can never get away from a parent’s 
loving intercession. He may run away from 
home and roam on the streets and rush into 
dangers ; but these prayers, faith-directed, 
love-winged, can find him anywhere and build 
a wall of fire about him, and draw down over 
him the sheltering wings of God. He may 
plunge into some den of evil, some gateway 


CHAINS OF GOLD. 


109 


of hell, and start madly on a downward course; 
but if, in his home, loving parents are at their 
altars pouring out tears and prayers, the strong 
hand of God is on his shoulder, and he will 
be restrained and led back. He may try to 
keep out of his parents’ sight, and to break 
the restraints that bind him to his home ; but 
he cannot get away from their prayers, nor 
break the chains of steel with which they 
have bound him thus to the throne of God. 
He may roam the world over to get away 
from God, but some time, somewhere, in some 
narrow path, the home prayers will meet him 
face to face, with drawn sword, as the angel 
met Balaam in the way, and turn him back to 
seek the way of truth and life. 

Oftentimes a criminal hastens away from 
the commission of his dark deed, and takes 
passage in a vessel about to sail ; and before 
his crime is discovered is far out upon the sea. 
With bounding heart he greets the first sight 
of the foreign shore. Stepping on that shore 
he will be free forever. He will begin a new 
life. But when the vessel arrives in port he 
is seized, bound in irons, and borne back to 
expiate his guilt. On the quick telegraphic 


no 


CHAINS OF GOLD. 


wire the news of his crime and the order for 
his arrest had outsped his flight, and justice 
stood waiting to lay her hand upon him and 
lead him back. So it is that a parent’s prayers 
often meet and arrest a wandering, sinning 
child. When he seems farthest away from 
God, and from the home influence, and when 
he least expects such a message, suddenly he 
is halted. An invisible hand is laid upon his 
arm ; he is bound with strong chains, and 
borne back resistlessly to the bosom of God. 
It was the home prayer that did it. 

No loving parent should then ever cease to 
pray for his child. And it is not enough to 
pray once, or only occasionally. We should 
be “ instant in prayer.” To pray for a few 
months or years is not enough. To cease to 
pray at all is to give up the cause and lose 
everything. It is the last stroke that fells the 
tree. It is the last hour of endurance that 
wins the battle. Years of intercession have 
been lost because the parent fainted and gave 
up before the answer came. Every hour of 
God’s delay is gathering a richer blessing; 
and every prayer put up is a new pledge of 
the child’s salvation, laid up in heaven. 


CHAINS OF GOLD. 


Ill 


Men make ropes out of many fine threads. 
One thread alone will not bear much stress ; 
but a thousand threads woven and twisted 
together, make a mighty cable which will 
hold the ship against a storm. So home 
prayers may seem weak threads as they are 
breathed out from quivering, trembling lips ; 
but thousands of them make a mighty cable 
which binds the child to the throne of Christ 
so firmly that no blast of evil can sweep him 
away. And every prayer makes the cable 
stronger. The parent may die without seeing 
his supplications answered, or his child con- 
verted; but his prayers die not with him. 
They remain where faith has fastened them ; 
one end around God’s throne, and the other 
about the heart of his child, fast anchoring it 
to heaven ; and some day, perhaps years after 
he himself has gone home to God, the angels 
will haul in the great cable, and give him his 
child, his heart’s treasure, the answer to all 
his prayers. Let us every one, parents and 
friends, in the beautiful thought of the poet, 
seek to bind our loved ones with these chains 
of gold fast to the feet of God. 


12 


GIFTS DIFFERING. 




LL men are not alike in their natural en- 



ii dowments. The differences we see in 
powers and attainments are not all the result of 
education or of varying circumstances. If all 
had precisely the same opportunities for devel- 
opment and culture, if all grew up in precisely 
the same circumstances, there would still be 
the most wonderful diversity of gifts and 
powers. The sun shines alike on all the plants 
and trees, and the rains fall alike on them ; 
and yet they grow up, each with its own dis- 
tinct individuality. All flowers do not become 
daisies, nor all trees oaks. The rose cannot 
through any kind of culture become an apple- 
tree. The creeping vine cannot be taught to 
rear its head high up, the peer of the mighty 
oak. The clover cannot be cultivated into a 
water-lily. A thousand years of culture would 
not give to the blazing sunflower the fragrance 
of the mignonnette. God has made them to 
differ. He gives to the oak a gift of strength. 


GIFTS DIFFERING. 


13 


to the vine a gift of fruitfulness, to the rose a 
gift of beauty, and to the heliotrope a gift of 
fragrance. And so he makes men to differ, 
distributing his gifts among them; and no 
advantages of culture or education would 
obliterate these differences. He gives to some 
five talents, to some two, to others only one. 

There is the most wonderful variety in all 
of God’s works. One star differs from an- 
other star in glory. The surface of the earth 
is diversified by valleys, hills, mountains, 
plateaus, rivers, lakes, and seas. In the vege- 
table world you find the giant pine of Cali- 
fornia, and at its root the tiny moss clinging 
to the rock. The sea contains great whales, 
and if you take a microscope and look into a 
drop of water, you shall find it to contain 
myriads of minute animalculae, so small that 
the single drop in which they move is like an 
ocean to them. Great beasts roam the forest, 
and if you examine a green leaf, you shall 
find it a little world in itself, with its tiny 
forests and gardens, and covered with its dense 
population of living creatures. And the same 
variety characterizes human gifts. No two 
faces are alike, and of all the millions of the 


GIFTS DIFFERING. 


1 14 

earth no two have precisely the same capacities 
and endowments. 

I suppose the reason why God has thus 
distributed his gifts so unequally is that every 
part of the work of the world may be done. 
This is the reason St. Paul gives in his letter 
to the Corinthians : If the whole body were 
an eye, where were the hearing ? If.the whole 
were hearing, where were the smelling ?” 
And we may carry out the illustration. If 
all men were merchants, who would till the 
soil, navigate the ships, and work the mines ? 
If all were painters or sculptors, who would 
write the books and heal the sick? If all had 
the gifts of a Napoleon to organize and com- 
mand, who would be the subalterns and pri- 
vates ? If all were millionaires, who would 
compose the great army of laborers who drive 
the wheels of business? If all had the gift 
of poetry, who would write the plain prose 
of life? If all in the church had the gift of 
pulpit eloquence, who would teach in the 
Sabbath-school, or carry tracts and books 
from street to street, or minister in men’s 
homes among the sick, the poor, the fallen, 
the weary ? 


GIFTS DIFFERING. 


II5 

There is every variety of work to be done, 
and there is, therefore, need for every variety 
of workman. And God distributes his gifts 
so that there may be a hand for every task, a 
foot for every errand, a tongue for every word 
that needs to be spoken, and a heart for every 
service of love. There is no confusion in his 
distribution. As the many members of the 
body, working together in perfect harmony, 
make up one complete body, so the many 
members of the body of Christ, if all are faith- 
ful in their diverse spheres, together make one 
glorious whole. 

Every one, even the humblest, has a dis- 
tinct mission of his own, and God bestows 
just the gifts each one needs for the work 
allotted. He wanted some great apostles to 
found his church and to bear his name before 
kings, and he chose twelve men and gave 
them great gifts. He wanted a reformer to 
tear the draperies of superstition from the 
cross and to unchain the Bible, and he raised 
up Luther and fitted him for the glorious 
work. So in every age he has a few great 
missions to fill, and he grants to a few men 
great gifts. But at the same time he wants 


1X5 GIFTS DIFFERING. 

humble servants to go and sit down by the 
poor, sick woman in her dingy garret and tell 
her of the Saviour’s love ; to visit work- 
houses, prisons, almshouses, and hospitals ; to 
teach the ragged child, and to do the thou- 
sand little nameless things of Christian ser- 
vice which must every day be done. And he 
gives to many of his servants just one talent 
to fit them for doing just these little things. 

The Great Eastern is a magnificent steamer, 
but she could not run up the Wissahickon. 
There must be vessels of all sizes to ply in 
all the channels of the waters. So there is 
need for every variety of gift in the church. 
God needs men to stand in the pulpit with 
hearts and tongues on fire with the eloquence 
of heaven, to proclaim the gospel to the 
thousands and to lead the sacramental hosts 
to battle. And he needs men and women to 
go out into all the trades and occupations, 
into printing-offices and counting-rooms, into 
mills and stores, into narrow courts and dark 
alleys, to bear the name of Jesus and the 
fragrance of his love everywhere. Hence to 
many of his servants he gives only one talent 
to fit them for doing little quiet things, for 


GIFTS DIFFERING. 


II7 

running little errands, for performing little 
noiseless ministries. 

Sometimes God touches a woman’s tongue 
and she writes songs that thrill a nation ; or 
she has the gift of eloquence, and her words 
move the masses and fire the people’s hearts ; 
but if all women wrote poetry, or were plat- 
form orators, who would mould and train 
infancy and childhood? who would fill homes 
with love and sweetness ? who would perform 
the countless little humble ministries in the 
sick-room, among the poor, in the abodes of 
sorrow, which only woman’s soft and gentle 
fingers can do ? There must be a great many 
people with common gifts for plain, common 
work. 

But whatever our talents may be, they are 
just what God has given us; and they are 
just what we need for the special work which 
God has allotted us. And if we use our gifts 
and fill our places, however lowly and hum- 
ble they may be, we shall be noble. Who 
will say that the modest daisy is not as noble 
in its own place as the tallest, proudest oak ? 
Nobleness consists in being what God made 
and meant us to be, and in doing what God 


Il3 A LETTER AND THE ANSWER. 


gives us to do. Faithfulness to our mission 
will receive the reward ; and unfaithfulness in 
the use of our gifts, whether great or small, 
will bring condemnation and loss of all. 


gi ttttd the gittjsuiee. 

I T may be that in the following extract from 
a letter, received from a weary and discour- 
aged teacher in one of our common schools, 
the writer has given expression to feelings 
which exist, unspoken, in the hearts of hun- 
dreds of other teachers : 

“ I am growing very weary of my work. I 
toil away, year after year, in obscurity, un- 
noticed, unhonored. No one ever speaks to 
me encouragingly or sympathizingly. Night 
and day I carry the children in my heart ; I 
live only for them ; I give all the energies of 
my soul to my work on their behalf. And 
yet their parents rarely ever, by word or 
token, recognize my interest in them, or my 
work for them. The children themselves are 
ungrateful. They grow up and pass into their 


A LETTER AND THE ANSWER. ng 

places in life without cherishing one kind 
remembrance of their teacher. Oh, how I 
long for sympathy, for some expression ot 
gratitude and love! There are hours when I 
would give all I have in the world for one 
word of cheer.” 

It is perhaps true that there is no class of 
earnest, faithful workers, toiling anywhere, 
with less sympathy and encouragement, and 
less earthly reward, than the teachers in our 
common schools. Their wages are but a 
mean and beggarly pittance. Then they are 
robbed of that reward, which is better than 
money : the love and gratitude of those for 
whom they toil. I do not think the words of 
my weary and discouraged friend are too 
strong. 

Now these things ought not so to be. 
There is no nobler work performed on this 
earth than is wrought by the great army of 
common-school teachers in our land. They 
deserve a far more liberal remuneration than 
they receive. The parents should esteem 
them very highly for their work’s sake, and 
give them that sympathy and encouragement 
which their hearts crave. And children, 


120 ^ LETTER AND THE ANSWER. 

growing up to manhood and womanhood, 
should carry deep in their hearts the names 
of their early teachers. 

It is our duty to remember, with gratitude, 
every one who has ever borne a blessing to 
us ; left a beautiful touch upon the canvas of 
our life; given us any fresh impulse; com- 
forted, cheered, or encouraged us at any 
time; or helped to fit us for usefulness in the 
world. And next to our own parents, there 
are none who do so much to mould and shape 
our lives for the spheres we occupy as our 
early teachers. We are apt to regard them 
as persons whose mission in life is to deprive 
us of our liberty, and make the hours tedious 
and irksome to us ; but I would love now to 
meet the teachers of my childhood. I would 
thank them from my deepest heart for what 
they did for me. 

But I desire in this paper to point all, who, 
like my weary friend, have become discour- 
aged, to the brighter side of this work. There 
are encouragements which should keep them 
always glad, which should spring up in their 
hearts as fountains of strength, inspiration, 
and blessing, ever fresh and new. What 


A LETTER AND THE ANSWER. 


I2I 


pleasure is sweeter than the consciousness of 
having helped and blessed others! And every 
teacher has this consciousness in his own 
breast. No one will ever, in the future, near 
or remote, regret having been a faithful teacher 
of the young. Whoever gives a child a good 
and holy impulse, or helps to shape a char- 
acter, or beautify a life, or fit any one for use- 
fulness, does a noble and glorious work. He 
may toil very obscurely. The world may 
have no word of praise for him as he works 
year after year. No one, blest by him, may 
return again to call him blessed. No hand 
of gratitude may bring a wreath for his brow. 

But God knows every good deed we do. 
And he sees every touch the teacher gives to 
a young life; every new and fresh impulse 
toward growth and development he inspires ; 
every influence he exerts toward nobleness, 
beauty, and usefulness. He registers every 
deed, every result. Or if the effort fails of 
result, he registers the intention, and will not 
forget the reward. 

The man who drops a seed into the ground 
may never see the plant that springs up, nor 
the flower that blooms. And those who 
9 


122 ^ LETTER AND THE ANSWER. 

admire its beauty, or enjoy its fragrance, may 
never think of the hand that dropped the 
seed. But no matter, others are blessed. 
The flower gives comfort in some sick-room, 
or cheers one who is weary and sad. And 
God knows who prepared the blessing, and 
he will remember to bestow the reward where 
it belongs. 

A man may plant a tree and shape its 
growth so that it shall spring up into lovely 
form. He may die before it reaches its full 
beauty ; but no matter, others will admire its 
goodly proportions and be pleased, or those 
who are weary may sit in its shade and be 
refreshed, or eat of its fruit and be filled. 
They may not think of him who planted it, 
or trained it for gracefulness and fruitfulness ; 
but no matter, God remembers. 

Not only the simple and immediate thing 
we do, does God count and reward, but the 
results, the fruits, the blessings that spring 
out of the act, as well. 

Let the teacher think of this when he 
grows weary in teaching. Let him think 
of the far-reaching influence of his labors. 
Elements of character will blossom out years 


A LETTER AND THE ANSWER, 123 

and years hence, because of the lessons, im- 
pulses, inspirations, and helps given in the 
school-room. 

Some of those now under the teacher’s care 
may become teachers themselves, or they may 
preach the gospel, or in some other sphere 
may become great blessings in the world, 
standing like beautiful trees shaking off their 
golden fruits years hence, to feed hungry 
minds and hearts. Or they may become 
fathers and mothers, and may fill homes with 
holy blessings. 

If the teacher lives to witness these remoter 
results, it will give him great joy to see such 
beauty and fruitfulness springing from seeds 
which his hand has planted. 

What matters it that the world knows 
nothing now of the teacher’s patient, self- 
forgetful work ? Or that the world shall not 
know, when it gathers up these fruits in the 
future, what hand sowed the seeds? Who 
thinks of the gardener when he walks through 
the beautiful garden, and admires the plants 
and flowers? Who thinks of the rain-drop 
when he looks upon the tall tree, or the fruit- 
covered branch ? Who thinks of the sun- 


124 . ^ letter and the answer. 

beam as he beholds the variegated beauty of 
the landscape? Let the teacher who is weary 
take new heart and toil on in patience. His 
work is obscure. He eats not here the fruits 
of his toil and pain. No crown is on his head. 
The world forgets him. Those he blesses are 
ungrateful. No voice sings his praise. No 
monuments are reared to his honor. His 
works do not blazon his fame. When he 
dies his name may not appear in public print. 
No loving friend may write his biography. 
No hand of gratitude may plant even a simple 
flower on his grave. But what matters it? 
God knows what he has done. He knows 
whose hand shapes men’s lives. He knows 
where the honor belongs. In heaven the tree 
will shake all its fruits into the lap of him who 
planted it. 

Perhaps the best part of the world’s history 
is never written with pen and ink, nor struck 
off from the printer’s types. Perhaps the 
noblest work done on earth is done out of the 
world’s sight. Perhaps the Lord’s best and 
most useful servants here are those who toil 
patiently in silence and obscurity, without 
fame, reward, or recognition among men. 


HO IV GOD PDEFADES HIS JEWELS. 125 

Like the roots in forest and field, which no 
man ever praises when he admires the tree, 
the flower, or the fruit, they work on in the 
darkness, preparing rich blessings for the 
world, while they themselves are forgotten, 
and even trodden underfoot by the world. 

The world thinks only of the greenness, 
fruitfulness, fragrance, and beauty. But God 
will remember the roots. 


O NE of the many lessons I get from the life 
of Peter is the value of defeats, humilia- 
tions, and trials. None of the disciples had 
so rough a time, or so many hard knocks, as 
he had. He was always in trouble. He was 
always being defeated. None of the disciples 
received so many stern, humiliating rebukes 
from the Master’s lips as he. Every little while 
we find him covered with shame. Then on the 
night of the betrayal he was terribly sifted by 
Satan. 

There is a meaning in all this. Diamonds 


126 ^OlV GOD PREPARES BIS JEWELS. 

are dug out of the earth in a rough state, with 
no apparent beauty, covered with a hard, ugly, 
crust ; and they are cut, sawn, split, and put 
upon the wheel, and ground, and ground, and 
ground, until they have the right form, until 
all the blemishes are ground out, and they 
shine in beauty fit for a king’s crown. Peter 
was a diamond, a great Koh-i-noor; but when 
the Lord found him, he was a very rough 
diamond, and had to be kept long upon the 
wheel, till every speck was ground off. It was 
through trials, humiliations, and defeats that 
he became such a glorious man. The only 
way to break down a man’s pride is by defeats 
and mortifications. The only cure for self- 
confidence is the cure Christ applied to him. 
He let him fall into the mire, and sink into 
the sea, and let Satan “tumble him up and 
down.” 

There are some characters that are like 
summer fruits which ripen early in the season, 
under the warmth of the sun ; but there are 
few such, except those whom God plucks and 
gathers, like early summer fruits, in the days 
of infancy, childhood, and youth. 

There are other fruits that ripen not till the 


I/OPV GOD PREPARES HIS JEWELS. 127 

sharp autumn frosts come. All through the 
summer they are sour, bitter, and unfit for 
food. The keen frosts make them luscious 
and mellow. And there are many of Christ’s 
disciples who bear just such fruits. They are 
very unripe Christians. They are sharp, acrid 
men. They are severe, selfish, harsh, bitter, 
censorious. There is no sweetness, gentleness, 
kindness in them. They may be good men 
or women ; they are good at heart, but they 
are not beautiful. People cannot love them. 
And yet they are God’s dear children. 

Then the frosts come — sharp, biting frosts. 
Afflictions enter their homes ; sorrows break 
in upon them. Bereavements turn the green 
leaves to sere and yellow. Humiliations come. 
They are defeated and crushed. God allows 
them to suffer great temptations. And out 
of these sad and painful experiences, these 
troubles and trials, these humiliations and fail- 
ures, they come, like the autumn fruits after 
the frosts, mellow, luscious, rich, and ripe. 
Frost opens the chestnut-bur, and the rich 
nut rolls out of its prickly envelope. So 
sorrows and trials strip off from many a 
beautiful soul its burry garments. 


128 HOW GOD PREPARES HIS JEWELS. 

Without these painful processes many a man 
would never reach glory. It was the rough 
knocks and sorry tumbles of his early dis- 
cipleship that made the Peter of the Gospels 
the Peter of the Acts and Epistles. It was 
scourging, imprisonment, and persecution that 
made Paul the brightest jewel of the world. 
David learned his psalms in the wilderness, 
when hunted and chased. Bereavement, loss, 
and sore sickness fitted Job to write that won- 
drous poem which bears his name. John 
Bunyan got the “ Pilgrim’s Progress” out of 
prison walls, and from the clanking of chains. 
It was a good thing that Satan sifted Peter ; 
he blew out the chaff, and left only the pure 
wheat. 

Let God burn out your dross, blow out your 
chaff, mellow your fruits by sharp frosts, and 
grind off the roughness of your character on 
the wheel of affliction. Some day, when you 
get through, and shine in the glory of heaven, 
loudest amid your praisings will be thanks- 
givings for your trials. 

A diamond lay sleeping quietly in its dark 
bed in the earth. A pick, plunging into its 
pillow, disturbed its slumber. “What does 


I/OfV GOD PREPARES HIS JEWELS. 129 

this mean ?” cried the little stone in terror, 
as it was rudely torn out. But the workman 
heeded not its cry. It was carried away into 
a strange room, and there it was cut and sawn, 
and then put upon the wheel and ground. 
“ Why is all this? Why are they destroying 
me ? Why are they cutting and grinding me 
all away ?” Thus groaned the stone, but the 
men heeded not its complainings. 

It is a grand day in the palace. It is a cor- 
onation day. The king is to be crowned. 
Amid the shouts and acclamations of the 
multitude, the new crown is brought forth 
and put upon his head. It is all aglitter with 
diamonds. But there is one stone that' is 
brighter than all the rest. Its beam flashes 
out like a ray of glory. 

“ Now I understand it,” says the little stone. 
“ Now I know why I was dug out, and cut, and 
ground, and polished. They were not destroy- 
ing me. They were only preparing me to 
adorn this crown.” And God knows how to 
grind his jewels. He knows how to prepare 
them for his own crown. 


130 


GOD^S WORKMANSHIP. 


T he “new creation,” no less than the old, 
declares upon its very face that the hand 
that made it is divine. The “ living epistle ” 
of true Christian life reveals the handwriting 
of Gk)d. The mighty works of conversion, 
regeneration, and sanctification only God can 
perform. When the fountain that used to 
send out bitter streams, begins to send out 
pure, sweet waters, the prophet’s hand may 
have cast in the healing branch; but I know it 
was God himself that sweetened the spring. 
And when a life once selfish, impure, unlov- 
ing, unholy, false, hating God, becomes loving, 
pure, holy, true, Christlike, human lips may 
have dropped the healing word into the heart ; 
human faith may have called down heavenly 
blessings upon the life ; and human love may 
have warmed the dead spirit ; but I know that 
God is the true author of the change. If I 
stand by the grave of Lazarus, and see the 
dead man come forth living, vigorous, strong. 


GOD'S WORKMANSHIP. 


I3I 

at the bidding of Jesus, I know that he was 
divine who did it. And when I see one who 
has been a reeling drunkard, or a fallen 
woman, or a prowling thief, or a greedy 
miser, changed into soberness, purity, honesty, 
unselfishness, into the beauty of Christ, I know 
that the hand of God has wrought the mar- 
velous change. When I see Saul on the 
highway, hurrying eagerly on, his heart full 
of bitter hate against Christ, his hands red 
with the blood of martyrs ; and, the next mo- 
ment, all the bitterness, the anger, the hate 
gone, lying at Jesus’ feet, looking up into his 
face, changed into a meek disciple, I know 
that it is the hand of God that has wrought 
this sudden, marvelous change. 

If one shows me good fruits, and I taste 
them, and find them rich, luscious, and sweet, 
I know they must have grown on good trees. 
And when I see a life bringing forth the beau- 
tiful fruits of righteousness, meekness, love, 
faith, patience, joy, prayer, and good works, I 
know that they have been gathered from no 
tree of earth, but must have grown upon a 
branch of that great vine, whose root is in 
heaven, but which trails all over the earth. 


32 


cons WORKMANSHIP. 


If the wind bears sweet odors in its breath, 
perfumes of flowers or fruits, I know it must 
blow over fragrant fields or gardens. And if 
a human life breathes the sweetness of heaven ; 
if the holy fragrance of love perfumes its 
words, its thoughts, its deeds, and all its in- 
fluences, I know it must be the breath of the 
Spirit of God, blowing through that life from 
the fields and gardens of heaven, that so 
sweetens and perfumes it. 

When I hear lovely strains of sweetest 
melody and harmony, coming from a musical 
instrument, as I pass along the street, I know 
they must be skillful fingers which strike the 
keys. And when I hear the harmonies of 
heaven, the sweet music of love and peace, 
songs of joy and gladness, and especially 
“songs in the night” of sorrow and trial, 
coming forth from a human heart; when I 
hear, however faintly and feebly, in a human 
life, the echo and repetition of the songs the 
angels sing as they do God’s will ; or what 
seems even a faint reverberation of God’s own 
sweetness, gentleness, love, truth, and peace ; 
I know that it must be the fingers of God that 
play upon the chords. No other hand could 


GOD'S WORKMANSHIP. 


133 


bring out such harmonies and such melodies 
of sweetness. Such a song as that Job sang 
over the mangled corpses of all his children ; 
such songs as Paul and Silas sang that night 
in the prison at Philippi, while their chains 
cut deep into their flesh ; such songs as the 
martyrs sang as they went into the flames ; 
such songs as many who read these words 
have sung in the hour of great trial and afflic- 
tion, when their hearts were crushed and 
broken ; such songs as all of us have heard 
from the lips of dying friends as they went 
down into the valley of shadows, — who but 
God could bring such heavenly melodies out 
of human hearts ? 

Thus on its very face the Christian life 
bears the evidence of God’s creative skill. 
Only the divine hand could produce such 
workmanship. Miracles have not ceased. 
Every conversion, every beautiful and noble 
Christian life, every life of faith and joy lived 
in a world of struggle and trial, is as great a 
miracle as any that Christ wrought in the 
days of his flesh. 


134 


HE KNOWETH HIS OWN. 


'gt lijai (^xcn. 

I N a certain sense he knows all men, but 
there is another sense in which he does 
not know any but his own. Our Lord repre- 
sents himself as saying to the wicked on the 
Judgment-day, “I never knew you and to 
the five foolish virgins who came too late, the 
answer from within is, “ I know you not.” 
There is, then, a peculiar sense in which he 
knows his own and does not know the world. 

He knows them by their faith. A poor 
woman came timidly behind him in the great 
throng, tremblingly reached out her thin, 
wasted hand, and touched but the fringe on 
the border of his garment. Turning quickly 
about, he asked, “Who touched me?” It 
seemed a strange question to ask, when the 
unmannerly crowd were treading with rude feet 
upon his skirts, and elbowing him on every 
side ; and one of his disciples said to him, 
“Why, Master, the multitudes are jostling 
against thee, and why dost thou ask, ‘ who 


HE KNOWETH HIS OWN. 


135 


touched me ?’ ” Ah ! but there was one touch 
different from all the jostlings of the crowd. 
It was the touch of faith. There was a heart’s 
cry in it. And though it was only the finger- 
tip of a poor, despised woman, Jesus knew it 
amid all the rude elbowings of the crowd. 

He is on his throne of glory now. All 
about his feet are throngs of holy angels. Yet 
his heart is sensitive to the feeblest touch of 
faith among all the millions of the earth. 
There are believing ones hidden away from 
the eye of the world. No church-roll carries 
their names. No pastor visits them. No 
minister breaks the bread or pours out the 
wine for them. Yet the Lord knows them. 
He hears their cries. They are dear to him. 
His angels encamp around them. Not one of 
them is forgotten by him. 

The Lord knows his own by the image they 
wear. Every one of them bears the features 
of the Redeemer on his heart. These features 
may be very faint and shadowy. They may 
be covered up and almost hidden beneath the 
coatings of earthliness and sin which overlay 
them. But yet they are there. The diamond 
when found is covered with a thick crust of 


HE KNOWETH HIS OWN, 


136 

worthless matter, but the skilled miner knows 
that under its rough exterior a brilliant gem 
lies imprisoned. So God knows where his 
jewels are. 

When the father saw his son coming, he 
knew him afar off. He had gone away wear- 
ing beautiful garments, with the flush of youth 
upon his cheek, with purity in his eye, with 
sweetness in his face. He came back in mis- 
erable beggar’s rags, his features haggard from 
hunger, his beauty stained and blackened by 
the polluted waters of sin. But the father 
knew him. There was something under his 
rags and filth ; beneath his stained features ; 
shining out from the wrecks and ruins of his 
manhood, which revealed to him his long-lost 
child. So the eye of God sees, under all the 
rags, beggary, and imperfection of our lives, 
shining out, perhaps, in dimmest beauty, yet 
unmistakably, the image of his Son. He 
knows every one who bears the faintest trace 
of divine beauty. He knows his own though 
they wear only meanest rags. 

He knows his own by their lives. Grace 
does not lie like a piece of hidden gold in the 
bosom. It is like leaven, which leavens the 


HE KNOWETH HIS OWN, 


137 


whole lump. It is a seed, small at first and 
growing secretly ; but it shoots up into a tree 
and puts forth branches and bears fruits. Piety 
permeates the whole of a man’s being. Life 
witnesses to the genuineness of conversion. 
Jacob deceived his blind father by putting 
on hairy robes, but God cannot be deceived. 
He knows the white garments which his chil- 
dren wear. He knows the branch by the fruit 
that hangs upon it. He knows his friends by 
their obedience. He knows his disciples by 
their following wherever he leads. He knows 
the penitent heart by the holy fragrance 
which it breathes forth. It is a broken 
heart, a sacrifice which is well-pleasing to 
him. It is an altar of incense. It is a box of 
precious ointment broken open. And as we 
find out the hiding-places of flowers or of per- 
fumes by their fragrance, so God knows the 
home of the penitent heart by the sweetness 
which floats up from it. 

And he knows the life of faith by the beauti- 
ful graces which adorn it, and by the gentle 
and holy ministries of love which are wrought 
by its hands. There are multitudes of lowly 
lives lived on the earth which have no name 
10 


HE KNOWETH HIS OWN. 


138 

among men, whose work no one ever records, 
but which are well known and unspeakably 
dear to God. They make no noise in the 
world, but it needs not noise to make a life 
beautiful and noble. Many of God’s most 
potent ministries are noiseless. How silently 
the sunbeams fall all day long upon the fields 
and gardens, and yet what joy, cheer, and 
life they diffuse*! How silently the flowers 
bloom, and yet what sweet fragrance they 
emit! How silently the stars move on in 
their grand marches around God’s throne, and 
yet they are worlds or suns ! How silently 
God’s angels work, stepping with noiseless 
tread through our homes, and performing 
ever their blessed ministries about us ! Who 
hears the flutter of their wings, or the faintest 
whispers of their tongues ? And yet we know 
that they hover over us and move about us 
continually. So Christ has many lowly earthly 
servants who work so quietly that they are 
never known among men as workers, whom 
he writes down among his noblest ministers. 
They do no great things, but they are bless- 
ings, perhaps unconsciously, wherever they 
go. 


HE KNOWETH HIS OWN. 


139 


It is said that when Thorwaldsen returned 
to his native land with those wonderful works 
of art which have made his name immortal, 
chiseled with patient toil and glowing inspira- 
tion, in Italy, the servants who unpacked 
them scattered upon the ground the straw 
which was wrapped around them. The next 
summer, flowers from the gardens in Rome 
were blooming in the streets of Copenhagen, 
from the seeds thus borne and planted by 
accident. So Christ’s lowly workers uncon- 
sciously bless the world. They come out 
every morning from the presence of God and 
go to their work. All day long as they toil 
they drop gentle words from their lips, and 
scatter little seeds of kindness about them ; 
and to-morrow flowers from the garden of 
God spring up in the dusty streets of earth, 
and along the hard paths of toil on which 
their feet tread. They have no distinction 
among men, but the Lord knows them to be 
his by the beauty and usefulness of their lives. 

He knows his own by their voice. A little 
girl sat long on her mother’s knee in silence, 
and then said, in a low, musing tone, “ When 
I say my prayers, God says. Hark, angels. 


140 


HE KNOWETH HIS OWN. 


while I hear a little noise !” Her mother 
asked what noise. “A little girl’s noise,” 
she replied. “Then the angels will close 
their lips and hush their songs, and keep 
very still till I say Amen.” What a sweet 
truth lies in the child’s beautiful fancy! Up 
amid all the ocean of angel song comes to 
God’s ear every child’s prayer, every soft sigh, 
every prisoner’s groan. There is never too 
much singing, nor too many harps resounding 
in heaven for God to hear “a little girl’s noise.” 

He knows every voice of his own. He 
recognizes the first faint expressions of the 
new life. Every murmur of prayer, every 
unvoiced wish, every faith-winged sigh, every 
breathing of love he knows, and bends his 
ear to catch, saying, “ Hark, that is the voice 
of one of my children.” 

He will know his own when they enter the 
other world. It was a grand review day. The 
general in command had risen from the ranks. 
It was a humble home in which he and his 
widowed mother lived. To-day high honors 
were his. He stood amid his officers. Down 
across the plain a soldier comes leading a 
humble woman. Her garb was poor. Her 


HE KNOWETH HIS OWN. 


I4I 

features told of care, her hands of toil. She 
wore no costly ornaments, no bright jewels. 
But the moment the general saw her he leaped 
from his horse and ran to meet her. He took 
her in his arms. He introduced her to his 
officers. He led her everywhere with joyful 
pride. It was his mother. In all his great- 
ness and splendor he was not ashamed to 
confess her in the presence of all his officers. 
So the glorious Christ will greet the lowliest 
of his disciples when they reach the end. He 
will not be ashamed of them though they 
come up to heaven out of the darkest court 
or alley in the great city, out of the deepest 
poverty and beggary, or from the wards of an 
hospital or almshouse. He will come down 
from his throne to welcome them. He will 
own them before all the heavenly ranks as his 
friends, for he said, “ Whosoever shall confess 
me before men, him shall the Son of man also 
confess before the angels of God.” He is not 
ashamed to call us brethren now, and he will 
not be ashamed to own us on the streets of 
gold. No disciple of Christ will roam for a 
moment unrecognized on the heavenly shores. 
He knoweth his own. 


142 


A FIELD WITHOUT SPRINGS. 


% $\tMi irithiofut 

ALEB had given to Achsah, his daughter, 



a field or piece of land, as her marriage 
portion. When she looked at it she discovered 
that it lacked one very important thing. It 
was, doubtless, a rich land, and a goodly mar- 
riage portion. It may have been beautiful, 
valuable, and in many ways desirable ; it may 
have had rich treasures of gold hidden away 
in the bosom of its hills and mountains ; but 
with all these excellences and advantages, it 
lacked one thing, and that one thing was vital. 
It had no springs of water; and good and 
desirable as it was, it needed these to convert 
it into a real blessing. 

And I see here a picture of every earthly 
lot which is not watered by the springs of 
divine grace. The very best portion of this 
earth is a field without springs of water, It 
may be very beautiful, very rich, very honor- 
able. It may be a possession in which gold 
and silver are hidden. It may be a palace to 


A FIELD WITHOUT SPRINGS, 


H3 

live in, and a crown to wear. It may possess 
every comfort and every luxury that earth can 
afford. But he who has nothing but this 
world for a portion has a very poor portion at 
the best. It is “ a south land.” It lies ex- 
posed to the heat of fiery trials. It slopes off 
toward the burning desert of sorrows. The 
hot blasts of adversity blow over it, withering 
its beauties and blighting its joys. 

Did you ever see a human heart that was 
satisfied with this world alone? Did you 
ever see a mere earthly portion that lacked 
nothing ; that possessed in itself every spring 
of comfort, blessing, and joy that a heart 
needs ; that made its possessor completely 
happy; and that met all the hungerings of 
his nature, and fully answered all the wants 
and cravings of his soul ? 

It is very sweet to be reared up and to 
dwell in a happy home, in the midst of ten- 
der human loves. Earth has no such palaces 
as those affection builds. But if no springs 
of divine love pour their sweetness into the 
life, its joys do not fill the heart, and will not 
last always. A mother spoke to me in glow- 
ing words of her daughter's enviable mar- 


144 


A FIELD WITHOUT SPRINGS. 


riage ; of her husband’s great wealth and dis- 
tinction among men ; of her costly presents ; 
of her elegant wardrobe; of her beautiful 
new home, with all its rich furniture ; of the 
fine society into which she had entered. But 
I remembered that there were no springs of 
water in her goodly portion. Neither she nor 
her husband had learned the way to the foun- 
tains of heavenly joy. No family altar sanc- 
tified their home. No voice of prayer went 
up out of those richly-furnished chambers to 
God. No ladder with its ascending and de- 
scending angels stood on their threshold. No 
streams from heaven’s holy mountains flowed 
amid their earthly joys. They were without 
God in the world. 

A young man spoke of his brilliant pros- 
pects, of his great success, of his wonderful 
achievements, of his many friends, and drew 
a golden picture of the future that was open- 
ing its doors to him. But I remembered that 
his portion was like Achsah’s, “ a south land” 
with no springs of water. He has not joined 
himself to Christ. His field is not irrigated 
and blessed by any never-failing streams from 
the mountains of God. He has cut himself 


A FIELD WITHOUT SPRINGS. 


145 

off from the springs of divine comfort and 
blessing. His field is only a desert. 

A worldly portion may bring a sort of 
satisfaction to a life for a time, while the bright 
days of prosperity continue, and while it is 
not smitten by the hot winds of adversity. 
But how is it when trouble comes ? Will the 
richest earthly portion console the man who 
stands over the coffin of his dead? When 
the heart is overwhelmed with anguish be- 
cause of guilt and remorse, will houses, lands, 
honors, and earthly pleasures give peace? 
What bitter, idle mockeries these things are 
in such an hour! A traveler in the desert, 
famished with hunger, saw a bag half-buried 
in the sand, which seemed to contain dates. 
‘‘Thank God! here is bread!” he cried, in 
wild joy. Tearing it open he found no food. 
It was a bag of pearls which some one had 
lost, a whole fortune, but only a mockery to 
a starving, dying man who wanted bread. 
And when a soul is crying out in the agony 
of guilt, in the bitterness of a great sorrow, 
or in the anguish of eternal dying, what terri- 
ble mockeries are the very choicest of this 
world’s rich and beautiful things ! They will 


1^6 A FIELD WITHOUT SPRINGS. 

not give comfort. They will not bring peace. 
They will not bridge over the gloomy chasm 
of death. They will not illumine the darkness 
of the grave. They will not cover over the 
hideous stains of sin. They will not put out 
the fires of remorse. They will not reach 
over into the eternal world. 

Every one has noticed that the most worldly 
men try to find the comforts of religion in the 
time of sore trial. Even the profane man and 
the scoffer want Christ when they come to 
die. An infidel on shipboard scoffed in the 
calm and sunshine, caricatured religion, and 
ridiculed its blessed hopes and promises. But 
the sea arose, the waves swept over the deck, 
and death seemed imminent ; and then he fell 
down on his knees and began to cry out, ‘‘O 
God ! what shall I do ?” His infidelity was 
good only in the calm, and went crashing 
down in the storm. The unbeliever’s joy will 
not live through perils and tempests. The 
infidel’s creed is not good to trust in when 
danger is nigh. It is a poor thing to die by. 

If this world is a man’s only portion it is a 
miserable one. It has no springs of comfort 
for his sorrow hours. It has no rod and staff 


A FIELD WITHOUT SPRINGS. 


147 


for him when he enters the lonely valley. It 
lifts up no cross to pour its light and love 
upon his bed of death. It sends him to a 
judgment where no divine Intercessor pleads; 
and into an eternity darkened by the guilt of 
a wasted, sinful life, and cheered by no hope 
of coming deliverance. 

Look about, dear reader, over your field 
and see if it has springs of water. Do streams 
of heavenly blessing flow through it ? Does 
your soul draw its life from the mountains of 
heaven, or are you depending only upon 
earth’s poor, broken and empty cisterns? 
Are you content with a mere earthly portion? 
Does it meet the deep cravings of your 
heart? Has it anything for your hours of 
trial ? Will it do in death ? Is it enough for 
the eternal future ? If we discover that our 
portion is only a field, exposed to hot winds 
and burning sun, and with no heavenly springs, 
should not Achsah’s prayer be ours, “ Oh, my 
Father, thou hast given me a south land; give 
me also springs of water.” 


148 


TO DISCOURAGED WORKERS. 


I T is surely a blessed joy which fills the 
heart of the Christian worker when he is 
permitted to reap the seeds of his own sowing, 
and to see the results of his own labor. And 
often this joy is given on earth. And yet it is 
impossible to know all the results of Christian 
effort, or to follow out all the blessed influences 
which radiate from an earnest, active church 
or Sabbath-school, or from an earnest, active 
life. In some kinds of work we can see every- 
thing that is done. All the results stand out 
visible to the eye. When the sculptor works 
upon his block of marble, every stroke leaves 
its visible impression. When the artist works 
upon his canvas, every touch leaves 'its trace. 
When the builder toils upon the walls, every 
brick or stone raises them a little higher. 
When the author writes his book, every move- 
ment of his pen leaves its trace upon the paper. 
When men work on matter they can see, and 
the world can see, what is accomplished ! 


TO DISCOURAGED WORKERS. 


149 


But it is not so in spiritual things. The 
results are not always apparent. Sometimes, 
it is true, they are so marked that all the world 
can see them, as when a wicked man is re- 
formed by the power of the gospel; or, as 
when one outside the fold of Christ comes in 
at the door, and sits down with God’s people. 
And yet, in any case, what can be seen or 
known, now and here, is but a small part of 
what is done. The number of conversions or 
accessions to the church is not the measure of 
the results of teaching and preaching. God’s 
Word gives out thousands of strengthening, 
comforting, sanctifying, upbearing influences ; 
and these are silent and unseen, yet mighty 
and powerful. Then there are many seeds 
sown, especially in the children’s hearts, which 
seem to be lost, but which, many years after, 
when the sower sleeps in death, will spring 
up into living fruitfulness and beauty. Perhaps 
in heaven we shall see that the best influences 
of our lives have been their unconscious in- 
fluences, and the most fruitful efforts those we 
considered labor in vain. Teach God’s truth 
patiently, hopefully, confidently, for he has 
said, “ It shall not return unto me void.” 


THE BEST TAMIL Y BIBLE. 


150 


^)xt gihU. 

I N many houses you will see beautiful Bibles^ 
bound handsomely in Turkey morocco, 
with gilt edges, and full of bright pictures. 
And I love to see a beautiful Bible in a home, 
especially if it is not kept too clean and un- 
soiled. But the most beautiful form in which 
a household Bible can be bound is in the holy 
life of godly parents. There is no tinted, gold- 
edged paper so fair as the pages God gives us 
on which to write our daily record. The pre- 
cepts and lessons of the inspired Word sound 
very sweetly when read out of a richly-covered 
volume, but they sound far more sweetly 
when the child can spell them out of the 
parent’s daily life. It is well for a parent to 
read to his child from the inspired page about 
the beauty of holiness; but it is better still 
when the child can see that beauty shining out 
transfigured in every feature of his parent’s 
character. It is well for him to read of the 
patience, gentleness, meekness, forbearance. 


THE BEST TAMIL V BIBLE. 


I51 

and love of Christ ; it is better when he ex- 
emplifies all of these traits. It is well for him 
to teach the child what the Bible says about 
lying, profanity, intemperance. Sabbath-dese- 
cration, and all sins ; it is better when his life 
proclaims all these lessons. 

No family Bible is so well printed and bound 
as the one that is printed on the heart, and 
bound up in the life of a godly parent. I 
would recommend all parents to get this kind 
of Bible, and to keep the dust off it always by 
constant use. This is the best kind for a lamp 
to the children’s feet. 

A beautiful Christian life is a living epis- 
tle written by the hand of God, which the 
youngest child can read before it has learned 
to spell out the shortest words of the lan- 
guage. It is a sermon that preaches Christ 
all day long, seven days in the week. And 
there is no heresy so dangerous to childhood 
as heresies lived in the home. 



152 


THE INFANT-TEACHEHS GRAVE. 


I T has no costly monument. There are only 
a few plain, simple flowers growing upon 
it. But there is a monument to her memory, 
not sculptured in marble, which shall never 
crumble. There are flowers of sweetness and 
beauty growing in many a heart which shall 
never fade, and which God shall some day 
gather in his hand and twine into a wreath for 
her glorified brow. 

She was in the fullness and freshness of 
youth when she went out from us at the close 
of a sweet Sabbath, never to return to us 
again. When we look at the dead form of 
one cut down so early in life and in the midst 
of such usefulness, we think that death came 
too soon. Oftentimes in cemeteries we see, 
over the graves of the young, the sculptured 
symbols of incompleteness. But there are no 
such symbols in heaven, for every one is im- 
mortal till his work is done. The Master 
takes none of his servants home until every 


THE INFANT-TEACHEH S GRAVE. 153 

task is fulfilled. Even the babe of an hour 
that merely opens its eyes to gladden the 
mother’s heart, and then closes them again 
and goes back to God, finishes the work God 
gave it to do. This teacher’s work was done. 

Thirty moons have waxed and waned since 
her gentle, tired hands were folded to rest, but 
her memory is fresh as ever ; and her work 
is going on. The noblest work God gives to 
mortals was hers — fashioning the hearts and 
lives of little children. The artist’s canvas 
will crumble, but it was hers to touch hues of 
fadeless beauty in immortal spirits. 

She was one of earth’s lowly ones, but in 
heaven bright honors will be hers, when God 
gathers up all the lessons she taught, all the 
good words she spoke, all the blessings she 
left in infant hearts, all the beautiful things 
she did, and all the children’s tears, and all 
their love, and weaves all together into an im- 
mortal crown of glory for her head. She is 
resting from her labors and her works are 
following her. 


I 


154 


THE ALABASTER BOX. 


M ary had received richest blessings at the 
hand of her Lord. Her heart overflowed 
with love for him, and nothing in all the world 
was too dear or too costly to bestow upon 
him. So she brought an alabaster box of very 
precious ointment, broke the box, and poured 
the ointment on his head. She brought him 
the very best gift she had. 

And so we ought all to bring our best things 
to Christ. He gave the best he had for us. He 
gave his life. His heart was broken, and his 
precious blood was poured out upon our sin- 
stained earth. And now from his throne of 
glory he lavishes the best gifts of his love 
upon us. He does not give us the crumbs 
from his table, and the worn-out garments from 
his wardrobe. He seeks all heaven through 
for its richest, best, and most beautiful things 
to bestow upon us. There is nothing in all 
his kingdom too good or too costly to give 
to us. 


THE ALABASTER BOX. 


155 


And we owe to him the best of everything 
we have. We should give him the best of our 
affections. He ought to have the warmest 
place in our hearts. Bring all the gems and 
jewels of your love and put them in the crown 
of Jesus. Bring all the sweetness of your love 
and pour it upon the head and the feet of 
Jesus. Gather all the choicest affections of 
your heart into one precious alabaster box of 
perfume, and bring it, and break it, and pour 
it out before him. Bring him the best offer- 
ings of your heart’s love. 

We ought to bring to Christ the best of our 
lives. Too many give him only the wasted 
remains. They spend the vigor of their youth, 
the strength of their manhood, the best of 
their life’s energies, in the world, in business, 
in selfishness, in sin ; and then, when they are 
old ; when their heart’s blood is wasted ; when 
their life is burned down to the socket ; when 
their limbs are stiffened with age ; when their 
eye is dim, their voice broken, and their ener- 
gies are all exhausted ; when there is only a 
weary, wasted body, a worn-out brain, a cold, 
frozen heart, and a lost soul ; then they seek 
to bring this poor, worthless offering to Christ. 


THE ALABASTER BOX. 


IS6 

They wait till all the beauty has faded, till all 
the honey is sipped from the flowers, till all 
the music is gone out of the harp, and its 
strings are jangled and broken. They give 
the best to the world and bring only the 
faded leaves and dead ashes to Christ. 

It is not such an offering that Jesus deserves. 
We ought to consecrate our childhood to him ; 
to spend our youth in his service ; to lay our 
manhood and womanhood on his altar. Give 
him the arm when it is strongest, the foot 
when it is swiftest, the brain when it is clearest, 
the heart when it is warmest, the tongue when 
it is most eloquent. Give the best to Jesus. 

We ought to give to him our best services. 
There are too many professing Christians who 
have time for everything but the work of the 
Lord. They have time for business, for con- 
versation, for pleasure, for all kinds of socie- 
ties, but no time for doing the work of the 
Lord. . But, remembering the years Christ 
spent for us, how full they were of toils, of 
tears, of self-denials, of sacrifices, do we not 
owe him the best services of our lives ? Should 
it not be in his cause that we do our best work, 
put forth our best energies, expend our best 


THE ALABASTER BOX. 


157 


powers, and attain our sublimest achievements ? 
Long ages ago an apostle wrote, “ To me to 
live is Christ.” And it was so with all the true 
followers of Jesus in early Christian days. Be- 
fore all things else they lived for Christ. 
Whatever a man’s occupation was, he was first 
of all a Christ's man. It was love for Christ 
that filled and thrilled his whole life, that set 
his whole being on fire, and that ruled all the 
passions of his soul. 

But how is it now with the great mass of 
the followers of Christ? Are they not first 
merchants, or soldiers, or statesmen, or poli- 
ticians, or mechanics, and then far down in 
the scale of their lives, Christians ? I put the 
question to you, dear reader. What are you 
first ? What is the one thing of your life which 
enkindles your warmest thoughts, which in- 
spires your loftiest enthusiasm, which impels 
your best endeavors, which weaves itself into 
all your plans and schemes, which possesses 
your mind in the pauses of business and toil, 
which mingles its threads in all the fancies of 
your dreams, which gives shape to all your 
efforts, which underlies everything you do, and 
which absorbs your best energies and your 


THE A LAB AS TEE BOX. 


158 

noblest services ? Is it the glory of God, or 
is it your business, your worldly ambition ? 
Bring Christ no more the mere waste and 
fragmentary services of your lives. Make not 
your Christian life any longer a secondary 
thing. Bring not to the altar of your Re- 
deemer any more a cold, dead, heartless ser- 
vice. Put Christ first. Do your best work, 
sing your sweetest song, speak your tenderest 
word, perform your holiest ministry for him. 

We should bring our best gifts to Jesus. In 
the olden days no offering would be accepted 
at the altar which had any spot or blemish. 
The people were taught that they must bring 
their very best things to God. But what kind 
of gifts do we bring to our dear Lord ? Are 
they the rarest and choicest that our hearts 
can find ? Or do we put him off with things 
that are of but trifling value to us ? 

Forget not that he has given, and is ever 
giving to us, the best things in his universe. 
He gave his best blood to ransom us. He 
brings us the finest gold from heaven’s moun- 
tains. He gathers for us the sweetest flowers 
that bloom in heaven’s gardens. He plucks 
for us the rarest fruits that hang on heaven’s 


THE ALABASTER BOX. 


59 


trees. He fills our cups with wine pressed 
from the richest of heaven’s purple clusters. 
He brings us the finest bread from his Father’s 
table. He puts upon our souls the loveliest 
garments that heaven’s looms can fashion. 

And yet, is it not true that we keep our best 
things for ourselves, and give him the things 
that we will miss the least from our own 
stores ? When our cup runs over we give him 
the drops that fall from the brim. When we 
have eaten and are full, we sweep up the 
crumbs for him. We sip the honey and the 
sweetness out of our flowers and give him the 
withered, faded leaves. We keep the bright 
dollars and give him the pennies. When 
times are hard and we find it necessary to 
economize, we begin our retrenchment at the 
Lord’s end of our income. We keep the 
weeks and give him the minutes. Let us bring 
him our best. Let us take our dearest things 
and lay them on his altar. Nothing is too 
good or too costly to be bestowed on such a 
Saviour. ^ 

You may work obscurely. Your friends 
may chide you and call you foolish thus to 
throw away your life. But nothing is wasted 


i6o 


THE ALABASTER BOX. 


which is given to Christ. No deed is in vain 
which is done to him. No life is lost which 
is poured out upon his altar. Gentle words 
are not lost which are spoken in the homes of 
the poor and sorrowing. Sweetness is not 
wasted which is poured into hearts unused to 
sweetness. Lessons are not lost which are 
taught with loving patience to the ignorant. 
Love is not wasted which is poured out amid 
scenes of bitterness. Beauty is not lost which 
fades in toil for Jesus. Money is not lost 
which is given to the Lord. He accepts the 
smallest deed of love as done to himself 
Every lowly service, every self-denial, every 
beautiful deed of love done to a suffering one, 
is an alabaster box of ointment broken open 
to anoint his head and feet. And he will 
gather up the perfume and keep it sweet and 
sacred forever for a memorial of you. 






















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